Minnesota National Guard Tuition and Textbook Reimbursement

Section 192.501, subdivision 2 requires the adjutant general to run a tuition and textbook reimbursement grant programme for members of the Minnesota National Guard. It is the largest education benefit available to a serving guardsman in this state, and the statute is unusually explicit about where its limits come from. Eligibility is a member serving satisfactorily as defined by the adjutant general, attending a postsecondary educational institution under section 136A.15, subdivision 6, including a vocational or technical school operated or regulated by this state or another state or province, who provides proof of satisfactory completion of coursework. Reimbursement follows completion; this is not a tuition waiver at the point of registration. The statutory ceiling is the greater of up to 100 percent of the cost of tuition for lower division programmes in the College of Liberal Arts at the Twin Cities campus of the University of Minnesota in the most recent academic year, or up to 100 percent of the cost of tuition for the programme the person is enrolled in at that Minnesota public institution, with an out-of-state public institution measured against a comparable University of Minnesota programme. Within that ceiling the actual amounts sit on a schedule determined and published in department regulations by the adjutant general. The annual dollar figures that circulate for this programme come from that schedule, not from the statute, and they move without a legislative act. The lifetime cap is statutory and hard: no further grants once the person has received grants for the equivalent of 208 quarter credits or 144 semester credits of coursework. Two extensions reach people who have left the Guard. A member who satisfactorily completed a service contract or its selective reserve portion, any part of which was spent serving honorably in federal active service or federally funded state active service since September 11, 2001, keeps eligibility for two years plus a period equal to the duration of that active service. A member separated or discharged from the Minnesota National Guard due to a service-connected injury, disease or disability keeps eligibility for eight years beyond the date of separation. Both remain subject to the 144-credit cap. For the two-year extension, paragraph (k) excludes basic combat training, advanced individual training, annual training, periodic inactive duty training, special reserve training, service under section 190.08, subdivision 3, and Active Guard Reserve service under 32 U.S.C. 502(f) from the qualifying active service. Survivors are covered. Where a member is killed in the line of state active service or federally funded state active service, the surviving spouse and any surviving dependent who has not reached 24 years of age is eligible, each independently subject to the 144-credit cap. For a survivor the reimbursement is limited to 100 percent of the cost of tuition for postsecondary courses at a Minnesota public educational institution. A spouse may use the member's unused benefit. Subdivision 2a allows the spouse of an eligible member to use up to 12 semester hours, or the quarter-credit equivalent, per year of the member's unused tuition reimbursement benefit for each year of Minnesota National Guard service after the eighth year. The total cannot exceed the unused portion of the member's benefit and the pair share the 144-credit cap. Two provisions are worth knowing for planning. Grants received under this subdivision may not be counted by the Minnesota Office of Higher Education or any other state body in determining eligibility for a state scholarship or grant-in-aid under sections 136A.095 to 136A.1311, so the state grant is not reduced by this benefit. And where a member fails to complete an enlistment during which a grant was paid, the adjutant general may recoup a prorated amount, except where the separation is due to a medical condition or financial hardship. There is also a small competitive recruiting award: up to $1,000 for a highly qualified person who agrees to join the Minnesota National Guard, for postsecondary education expenses not covered by other awards, no more than 25 in a calendar year, one per person, and not counted against the other limits.