Education & Employment

Missouri National Guard Educational Assistance

A tuition and fee waiver at Missouri public institutions plus a grant programme, capped at University of Missouri average tuition and 120 completed credit hours. The 2026 session struck GI Bill entitlements from the offset list, and the waiter switches off entirely in any year the state appropriation share falls.

Also called: 173.239, state tuition assistance, STA, tuition and fee waiver, 120 credit hours, GI Bill offset, 2.5 GPA, FAFSA, repayment.

For: Veteran or service member.

Where it applies

Written for the jurisdictions listed here.

MissouriState

Section 173.239 gives a serving member of the Missouri National Guard educational assistance in one of two forms, and it was rewritten by Laws 2026 H.B. 2593, effective August 28, 2026. The first form is a tuition and fee waiver for undergraduate courses at a Missouri postsecondary institution that directly receives funds appropriated by the general assembly. It is not implemented before the 2025-26 academic year. "Fee" means any mandatory fee charged by the institution to all full-time students as a condition of enrolment. The waiver is last-dollar, and the 2026 act changed what it comes after. The waiver covers only tuition and fees remaining after the application of payments from a tuition assistance programme of the National Guard, Army or Air Force; additional federal military tuition assistance; awarded external scholarships; and federal financial grants including the Pell grant. What House Bill 2593 struck from that list was "GI Bill educational entitlements". Before August 28, 2026 a Guard member's GI Bill was counted against the waiver; after it, it is not. A member holding Post-9/11 entitlement is materially better off under the new text, and any description written before that date understates the benefit. The second form is a grant to an eligible institution of the member's choice, which reaches approved public and private institutions under section 173.1102 and also a wider class of accredited institutions that have operated in Missouri for five or more years with no more than half their students in correspondence programmes. Either way the assistance may not exceed the lesser of the actual tuition charged where the member is enrolled, or the number of credit hours taken multiplied by the average tuition cost per credit hour charged to a Missouri resident at the University of Missouri, as determined by the Missouri National Guard. Grants may be prorated subject to appropriation, but not below fifty percent of those limits. Three conditions bind hard. The waiver stops at 120 completed credit hours, and subsection 5 counts credit hours earned without this assistance toward that total. A member who already has a substantial transcript from before joining may have little or no waiver left. Subsection 6 is a self-destruct clause with no parallel elsewhere in this catalog: "The tuition and fee waiver shall not be available in any fiscal year in which the percent of total program costs covered by the state appropriation for the educational assistance provided pursuant to this section has decreased compared to the previous fiscal year." A single year in which the state's share of programme cost slips turns the waiver off for everyone for that year. The grant survives; the waiver does not. Subsection 7 requires repayment. If a recipient ceases to maintain active military affiliation while enrolled in a semester or term, for any reason except death, disability or medical disqualification, the assistance is terminated and the recipient must repay any amounts awarded or waived for that term. A member who separates mid-semester owes the money back. The ordinary conditions are a certificate of satisfactory service from the commanding officer, all other entrance requirements of the school, a cumulative grade point average of at least 2.5, not having yet earned a bachelor's degree, and a completed FAFSA for the term. A GPA falling below 2.5 puts the member on probation with the assistance retained; failing to reach 2.5 in a future term terminates it from the next academic term, and the member comes off probation on regaining a 2.5 cumulative average. The programme is administered by the office of the adjutant general, which sets the guidelines for equitable administrative distribution.

Thresholds

Thresholds for Missouri National Guard Educational Assistance
Gate	Rule
A current member of the Missouri National Guard in satisfactory service	Section 173.239.1 and 3(1)(a): the assistance is available while the person is a member, on a certificate of satisfactory service from the commanding officer.
Last-dollar, but GI Bill entitlements were removed from the offset in 2026	Section 173.239.1(1) as amended by Laws 2026 H.B. 2593, which struck "GI Bill educational entitlements" from the list of aid applied before the waiver. Guard, Army and Air Force tuition assistance, additional federal military tuition assistance, external scholarships and federal grants including Pell still come first.
Stops at 120 completed credit hours, counting hours earned without the benefit	Section 173.239.5 counts credit hours earned with and without the educational assistance toward the 120-hour ceiling.
The waiver switches off in any year the state appropriation share falls	Section 173.239.6: the tuition and fee waiver is not available in any fiscal year in which the percent of total programme costs covered by the state appropriation has decreased compared to the previous fiscal year.
Leaving the Guard mid-term means repayment	Section 173.239.7 terminates the assistance and requires repayment of amounts awarded or waived for the term where the recipient ceases active military affiliation while enrolled, except for death, disability or medical disqualification.
A 2.5 cumulative GPA, no bachelor’s degree yet, and a FAFSA	Section 173.239.3(1)(c) to (e), with the probation and termination mechanics in subsection 4.

Sources

Legislation

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SS SCS House Bill 2593 (2026) Created a second veteran procurement preference, raised paid military leave, imported the SCRA into state active duty, and stopped offsetting the GI Bill against the Guard tuition waiver

Catalog reconciledEnactedFigure moved Scope changed Program created

Signed 2026-07-09Takes effect 2026-08-28

Introduced Done, 2025-12-29, step 1 of 6
In committee Done, 2026-01-08, step 2 of 6
Passed one chamber Done, 2026-03-02, step 3 of 6
Passed both chambers Done, 2026-04-27, step 4 of 6
Signed by the governor Done, 2026-07-09, step 5 of 6
In effect Done, 2026-08-28, step 6 of 6

Expands benefits Adds a veteran-owned business preference, raises paid military leave to 160 hours and ends the GI Bill offset.

Repealed thirteen sections and enacted twenty-four. Four changes move figures or gates in this catalog. New Mo. Rev. Stat. 34.069 gives a three-point bonus preference and a three percent goal to any honorably discharged veteran-owned enterprise, alongside the existing service-disabled preference in 34.074, and both sections now bar a business from taking points under one after taking them under the other, so the two are mutually exclusive rather than cumulative; both bind every political subdivision as well as the state. Section 105.270 raised paid military leave for state, county, municipal, school district and other public employees from 120 to 160 hours per federal fiscal year for federal service, leaving state-call duty uncapped. Section 40.490 gained two subsections extending all Servicemembers Civil Relief Act rights to Guard members on state active duty for more than thirty consecutive days, which the federal Act does not itself reach, and giving the member a private right of action alongside attorney general enforcement. And section 173.239 struck "GI Bill educational entitlements" from the list of aid applied before the National Guard tuition and fee waiver, so a Guard member holding Post-9/11 entitlement now keeps the waiver on top of it. The act also broadened the medals paragraph of 42.300 from named conflicts to any conflict identified under chapter 42 and created three medallion programmes at once. Tracked because published guidance still prints the 120-hour leave figure, and because the GI Bill offset deletion is invisible from the current statute text.

Sponsor

Touches Mo. Rev. Stat. § 34.069 · Mo. Rev. Stat. § 34.074 · Mo. Rev. Stat. § 40.490 · Mo. Rev. Stat. § 105.270 · Mo. Rev. Stat. § 173.239 · Mo. Rev. Stat. § 42.300

Also touches

Official record

Senate Bill 912 (2024) Replaced the National Guard tuition grant with a waiver that switches off if the state appropriation share falls

Needs reviewEnactedProgram created Scope changed

Signed 2024-07-11

Introduced Done, 2023-12-01, step 1 of 6
In committee Done, 2024-01-25, step 2 of 6
Passed one chamber Done, 2024-03-26, step 3 of 6
Passed both chambers Done, 2024-05-07, step 4 of 6
Signed by the governor Done, 2024-07-11, step 5 of 6
In effect Done, 2024-07-11, step 6 of 6

Expands and restricts Adds a tuition and fee waiver, but caps it at 120 hours, ends it in a year of falling state share and requires repayment.

Rewrote Mo. Rev. Stat. 173.239 to add a tuition and fee waiver at Missouri public institutions alongside the existing grant, not to be implemented before the 2025-26 academic year, capped at 120 completed credit hours counting hours earned without the benefit. Two conditions in the rewrite are unusual. Subsection 6 provides that the waiver "shall not be available in any fiscal year in which the percent of total program costs covered by the state appropriation for the educational assistance provided pursuant to this section has decreased compared to the previous fiscal year", so a single year of declining state share turns the waiver off for everyone while the grant survives. And subsection 7 requires a recipient who ceases active military affiliation while enrolled, for any reason except death, disability or medical disqualification, to repay amounts awarded or waived for that term. Tracked because a funding-contingent switch of this kind has no parallel elsewhere in this catalog and cannot be predicted from the eligibility criteria a member reads, and because published descriptions still give the older 39-hours-per-year and 150-lifetime-hour structure.

Sponsor

Touches Mo. Rev. Stat. § 173.239

Official record

Updated

Last updated 2026-09-29.

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Disclaimer

VetTOC is not affiliated with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs or the Department of Defense. Information is for reference only and is not an eligibility determination. Verify with VA, the relevant state or territory, or an accredited VSO.