Missouri Returning Heroes’ Education Act

Section 173.900 is the largest education benefit in this file and it is not a grant. It is a price cap imposed on the institution. All public institutions of higher education that receive any state funds appropriated by the general assembly must limit the tuition they charge a combat veteran to fifty dollars per credit hour, for a programme leading to a certificate or an associate or baccalaureate degree, as long as the veteran achieves and maintains a cumulative grade point average of at least 2.5 on a four-point scale. For a programme leading to a graduate degree the limit is no more than thirty percent of the cost of tuition and fees. The two expiry dates are the most important sentences in the section and the ones no secondary description carries. The undergraduate limitation expires at the end of the ten-year period beginning on the date of the veteran's last discharge from service. The graduate limitation expires at the end of the twenty-year period beginning on that date. A veteran eleven years out cannot use this for a bachelor's degree, and that is a hard statutory stop rather than an administrative practice. Professional degrees are excluded from the graduate cap outright. The statute says "graduate degree" shall not be construed to include professional degrees, and gives law, medicine and veterinary degrees as examples. A combat veteran going to law school in Missouri gets nothing from this section. Who is a combat veteran is broader than most summaries state. Subsection 2 defines it as a person who served in armed combat, shown through military service documentation reflecting service in a combat theater, receipt of combat service medals, or receipt of imminent danger or hostile fire pay or tax benefits, who is eligible to register to vote in Missouri or is eligible to vote as determined by the secretary of state or is a current Missouri resident, and who was discharged under honorable conditions. There is no minimum number of days in the section and no requirement that the service be after September 11, 2001. Descriptions requiring thirty consecutive days in a post-9/11 combat zone are narrower than the statute. The sequencing election in subsection 6 is unusual and valuable. Where a combat veteran is eligible for other federal or state student aid, the full amount must be reported to the coordinating board, and then: "The tuition limitation under this section may, at the combat veteran's discretion, be provided before all other federal and state aid for which the veteran is eligible has been applied." The institution must give each combat veteran written notice of that option and keep a copy signed by the veteran in the official file. Taking the cap first can leave Post-9/11 GI Bill months unspent for a later degree. Compare section 173.1153, in the same chapter, which makes the Guard and reserve in-state tuition benefit strictly last-dollar with no election at all. The cost sits on the institution unless the legislature chooses to cover it. Subsection 7 lets an institution report the tuition waived and lets the general assembly reimburse it in the operating budget, and then says: "Nothing in this subsection shall be construed to deny a combat veteran a tuition limitation if the general assembly does not appropriate money for reimbursement to an institution." So the right does not fail for want of an appropriation, which is the opposite of how most unfunded education mandates in this catalog are drafted. The coordinating board for higher education is charged with ensuring compliance and may make rules.