Nebraska Tuition Credit for the Family of a Guard Member Who Dies in State Service

Section 85-507 is short and narrow and it fills a gap that federal survivor benefits leave open. The spouse and children of any member of the Nebraska National Guard who dies while serving in the active service of the state are entitled to a credit of one hundred percent of tuition at any state-supported university, college or community college in Nebraska, or at any independent, not-for-profit, accredited Nebraska college or university, with the private college credit capped at what the University of Nebraska-Lincoln would have cost. The phrase "active service of the state" is the whole of it. A Guard member serving on state active duty, ordered out by the Governor for a flood, a blizzard, a tornado or a civil emergency, is not on federal duty and is not covered by the federal survivor programmes that follow a title 10 death. Nebraska covers that death itself. A Guard member killed while federally mobilised is covered by federal survivor education benefits and by the Nebraska Waiver of Tuition under 80-411 instead. The limits are precise. The credit is for any undergraduate course of education not exceeding four years. No credit is granted to the spouse after the tenth anniversary of the member's death, and none to a child after that child's twenty-fifth birthday. Graduate study is not covered. Eligibility is certified by the Adjutant General of the Nebraska National Guard rather than by the Department of Veterans' Affairs. The certificate of eligibility is obtained from the Adjutant General and presented to the educational institution, which is a different route from every other education benefit in this file. A family in this position should check the Nebraska Waiver of Tuition under 80-411 as well. That programme reaches a dependent of a member of the armed forces of the United States who died on active duty, and a Guard member on state active duty is generally not on active duty in the federal sense, so this section is likely to be the operative one. Where both apply, the waiver under 80-411 has no four-year cap and no ten-year window but is limited to one community college credential and one baccalaureate degree.