Michigan National Guard State Tuition Assistance Program

The Michigan National Guard tuition assistance act, 2014 PA 259, pays tuition rather than reimbursing a percentage of it, and it works at any public or private college, university, vocational school, technical school or trade school located in Michigan. That includes private institutions, which several neighbouring states' Guard programs do not. The published maxima. The Department of Military and Veterans Affairs publishes lifetime caps of up to $14,400 for an associate degree and up to $14,400 for a baccalaureate degree, and up to $6,000 each for a training program, a certificate program, or a master's degree. The adjutant general sets the amount available in any academic year and the same figure applies to every eligible person, so the program can be scaled down when the fund is short; section 32.433(3) makes approval contingent on there being sufficient money. What tuition means here. The cost of a course of study including instructional fees, laboratory fees, computer fees, and other fees directly related to the member's specific course of study. It expressly does not include books and study materials. Eligibility is about standing in the Guard, not about a rating or a discharge. The member must be in active service, must not be absent without leave or under charges under the Michigan Code of Military Justice, and must meet any other criteria the adjutant general sets consistent with recruiting and retention requirements. Traditional service, one weekend a month and two weeks a year, counts as active service. First degree only. The program applies to a course of study intended to culminate in vocational or technical training, a certificate, or the member's first associate degree, first bachelor's degree, or first master's degree. A member who already holds a bachelor's degree cannot use it for a second one. Grades and payback. On completing a course of study the member must provide evidence of attendance and completion with a minimum grade point average of 2.0 on a 4.0 scale for that semester. A member who received assistance and did not complete the course must reimburse the fund in an amount and manner the adjutant general prescribes, unless a state or federal deployment made completion impossible, in which case the adjutant general decides. The family transfer, added by 2023 PA 33. The adjutant general may establish a policy allowing a lawfully married spouse, or a dependent child, stepchild or legally adopted child who has graduated high school or obtained an equivalency certificate or has turned 18, to use the member's tuition assistance. A child must use it before turning 26. Note the form of the provision: the adjutant general "may establish a policy", so the transfer exists because the department has chosen to run it rather than because the statute confers it. Applying before or after. A member may apply before enrolling, under 32.433(3), or apply for reimbursement of tuition already paid in the current academic year, under 32.433(4). Since 2025 those two routes draw on different pots: the forward-looking one on the tuition assistance fund, the reimbursement one on the Michigan National Guard member benefit fund. The funds moved in 2025. Section 32.434 caps the tuition assistance fund at $15,000,000, with any excess lapsing to the general fund, and provides that the unencumbered balance at the end of the fiscal year ending September 30, 2025 was transferred to the new member benefit fund created by 2025 PA 31. That fund now also carries the Guard child care and TRICARE reimbursement programs described separately in this catalog.