Montana Honorably Discharged Veteran Tuition Waiver

This waiver is routinely described as free tuition for Montana's honorably discharged veterans. The condition that actually decides most applications is the opposite of generous: the waiver exists to catch veterans whose federal education benefits have run out. Board of Regents Policy 940.13 requires that the veteran "elected to become eligible for educational benefits under Title 38 or Title 10 of the United States Code, or a successor federal program granting educational benefits based on active duty in the regular armed forces of the United States, and has exhausted such benefits or is no longer eligible for such benefits because of the passage of time." A veteran with months of Post-9/11 entitlement left is not eligible. A veteran who declined the Montgomery GI Bill buy-in and so never elected eligibility is not eligible. A veteran who transferred entitlement to a child rather than using it is in an uncertain position and should ask the campus before enrolling on the assumption. There is a specific disqualification for the old contributory programs: a participant in the Veterans' Educational Assistance Program, or any similar contributory program, who withdrew any portion of their contribution before the expiration date for their benefits is not eligible. The discharge test is strict. The Montana University System's published criteria say the veteran must have received an honorable discharge and that "Honorable Under General Conditions will not be accepted", for service on active duty other than for training. That is narrower than the Montana employment preference, which counts a general discharge, and it is the same standard the veterans' home and the state cemeteries apply. What is actually waived is narrow. Policy 940.13 waives tuition only. No mandatory fee, miscellaneous fee, program fee or other charge is waived, and registration and building fees may never be waived. It is a last dollar award applied after all federal grants and scholarships, up to the cost of resident tuition, so a veteran with a Pell grant may find the waiver worth little or nothing. It is not available for flat fee courses. Two procedural points. The student must be a Montana resident for tuition purposes under Board Policy 940.1, and must apply no later than the third week of the first semester for which the waiver is requested. Satisfactory academic progress under the campus's federal financial aid standard has to be maintained. The statute behind all of this is permissive and narrower than the policy. Section 20-25-421(2) says the regents "may" waive tuition and fees for "residents of Montana who served with the armed forces of the United States in any of its wars and who were honorably discharged". On its face that is a wartime benefit. The Board of Regents has chosen to run a broader waiver that does not require wartime service, which means the program exists at the Board's discretion rather than as an entitlement a veteran could enforce.