Earlier this year, the Senate passed $95 billion in foreign aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. The fact that lawmakers ultimately voted so overwhelmingly in favor of the long-delayed legislation underscores the growing bipartisan concern over escalating tensions in several corners of the world. Such threats come at an especially challenging time for the United States military. Last year, the Army fell short of its recruitment goal by about 10,000 soldiers.
Responding to these emerging challenges will require the U.S. military to find ways to bolster its ranks. Fortunately, the country already has a powerful, if underutilized, recruitment tool at its disposal: tuition assistance.
Education benefits have long ranked among the primary reasons people join the military. They are also essential for ensuring our military members can succeed in civilian life, helping them secure strong careers while providing the country’s labor force with a steady pipeline of experienced and disciplined talent.
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However, these benefits have struggled to keep pace with the evolving needs of service members. In recent years, the buying power of the military’s tuition assistance program has begun to rapidly diminish. Furthermore, a recent report from Rand Corp. found that military transition programs provide minimal support in helping service members and veterans actually translate their skills and experience to the labor market.
Higher education should be a crucial bridge between military service and civilian employment, yet many programs designed for service members and veterans are falling short. The United States has a moral obligation to support military members during and after their service. It also has a clear national security incentive to invest in the training and development of its service members.
Here are three ways the United States can enhance and modernize education benefits for military members.
Raise the cap on tuition assistance
While the Department of Defense’s Tuition Assistance program provides financial aid to active-duty service members, those funds are capped at $250 per credit hour and at $4,500 per year. Based on DOD data, if a service member were to rely solely on this program to pay for college, it would take them seven years to earn an associate’s degree. With many service members going to college with the goal of earning a credential that can quickly help them transition to a well-paying civilian career, that’s a delay very few can afford.
Astoundingly, the cap has remained unchanged for more than two decades. The same can’t be said for tuition and fees, which have dramatically risen over the same time frame, putting increasing financial strain on our service members and their families.
Tuition assistance programs mean very little if they do not provide enough funding for service members to complete their education and earn a credential of value in a timely fashion. It is long past time to revise the tuition assistance cap so that it reflects the true costs of higher education today.
Raise appropriations
Of course, the Defense Department cannot better fund tuition assistance and other education benefits for military members without a commensurate increase in its budget for such programs.
Current levels of funding not only create challenges for military learners but the institutions serving them. With each passing year, participating in the tuition assistance program becomes less and less cost-effective for colleges and universities. A growing number of institutions are already opting out, citing their inability to sustain their support for active-duty service members with the resources currently available to them. Alarmingly, the Army is now reportedly considering potential cuts to its education benefits, following similar cuts made by military branches during the COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath. These measures have only hastened the decline of the program’s impact.
Lawmakers should act to secure additional funding to expand the Defense Department’s education benefits. With Congress currently weighing President Biden’s request for $850 billion in Defense Department spending for 2025, even a significant increase in appropriations for tuition assistance would constitute just a small fraction of the overall DOD budget.
At the same time, policymakers can work to tie those dollars to institutional outcomes, helping ensure that such funds not only open the door to education and training for service members but help create clear pathways to employment.
Raise awareness
There is a great need to build awareness not only about the necessity of improving military education benefits but also about the existence of such benefits in the first place.
A 2017 Rand study found that a surprising number of new recruits are unaware of the education benefits available to them, with less than a quarter being familiar with the tuition assistance program. Just 20% of service members currently use the benefit. As higher education leaders, military leaders and policymakers work to improve and modernize these programs, they should also ensure that more recruits and service members are informed of — and motivated by — the educational opportunities the military can provide.
Amid escalating global tensions and a challenging recruitment landscape, the United States will need to intensify its efforts to maintain a robust and capable military. Enhancing and modernizing education benefits represents an investment in both the individual futures of our service members and the long-term security of the nation.
Meg O’Grady is senior vice president of Military and Government Programs at National University. With 25-plus years of experience, Meg is a nationally recognized expert on creating employment, transition, education and outreach programs that engage the military community.
