Nebraska National Guard Tuition Assistance

Section 85-505 gives a member of the Nebraska National Guard a credit of one hundred percent of resident tuition for a diploma, certificate, associate degree or baccalaureate degree programme, and fifty percent for a graduate or professional degree programme. The distinctive feature is where it can be spent. Unlike almost every state education benefit in this catalog, this one reaches independent, not-for-profit, accredited colleges and universities in Nebraska as well as the state-supported institutions. The credit at a private college is capped at the amount the member would have received attending the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, so the state pays the same either way and the member covers the difference. A Guard member choosing between a private Nebraska college and a state campus is not choosing between having the benefit and not having it. Three conditions in 85-505.01 shape the programme more than the percentage does. The federal-first rule. Subsection (1)(b) makes the programme unavailable to any member who has not exhausted available federal tuition assistance benefits. Federal TA is the first payer and the state credit sits behind it. This is deliberate sequencing rather than an offset, and it means a member who has not applied for federal TA has not yet qualified for the state credit. The headcount. Subsection (1)(a) caps the programme at twelve hundred members in any fiscal year. Section 85-505 adds a priority rule for allocating those places: priority goes to individuals who have previously received tuition credits as a Guard member, and the Adjutant General applies programme qualifications and limitations consistent with efficient management. A continuing student is ahead of a new one. The service obligation, with a clawback. Subsection (4) requires a member receiving tuition assistance to agree in writing to serve three years in the Nebraska National Guard after completing the courses paid for, and a member who leaves inside that period may be asked to reimburse the state, with recovery under 72-1601. Subsection (3) adds a separate liability for voluntary withdrawal from a course: the member is liable for all costs relating to the withdrawal, including everything the institution bills the Guard. Dropping a class is not free here. Only credit-bearing courses meeting programme requirements are approved. Non-credit courses are excluded by subsection (2). Section 85-506 requires a certificate from the Guard as to performance before the credit is granted, and 85-508 handles reimbursement of the educational institution. A Guard member should check this programme against the Active Selected Reserve credit in 80-901 rather than assuming one covers them. The Guard programme pays more, covers private colleges, and has six times the number of places. A member of a federal reserve component rather than the Guard cannot use it.