Photo: National Center for Veteran Studies
I'm getting tired of writing about the sequester, you're getting tired of hearing about it (and not just from me), but it's just starting to get rolling, unless something happens to end it (this is the subject of President Obama's weekly address this week, video here and a transcript here.)
This morning David Sommerstein reported on how sequestration could affect the Akwesasne Mohawk nation: It looks like cuts to education and law enforcement. Today the Watertown Daily Times reports that the Army is suspending its tuition assistance program as a result of the sequester. That program makes up to $250 per credit hour with an annual limit of $4,500 (according to some math I did earlier this month, that buys you about a year at Jefferson Community College if you live in the county.) More on tuition assistance here.
Veteran Josh Jones (seen here in his dorm room at Paul Smiths College) went back to school with help from the Post-9/11 GI Bill, which will not be part of the cuts described in this post. Brian Mann reported on Josh and returning veterans like him in three stories late in 2012. Photo: Mark Kurtz.
JCC has 102 students who use this program, and about a third of the school's student body is affiliated with the military or has a spouse who is. In the article, JCC continuing education dean Jill M. Pippen says the school will lose more than $100,000 if this funding goes away, and that impact might force the school to consider reducing its course offerings.
Other schools in our region have far fewer students using this particular type of funding, not surprisingly: SUNY Potsdam has 11; Canton has 18; and Clarkson and St. Lawrence have few to none.
GI Bill funding is still available, by the way, as are other funding programs. Servicemembers who are currently enrolled in courses using tuition assistance won't be affected.
This for me is among the most painful cuts I've seen. Education for servicemembers has long been part of our compact with those who agree to risk, and even lose, their lives in service to our country. It's a pretty big deal. And although tuition assistance doesn't provide nearly as much support as the GI Bill does, taking swipes at that compact seems like something our government should take pains to avoid.
We're in early days with the sequester, and it seems to behoove our government to deal with this now before it gets worse. I'm obviously not advocating for any particular way of dealing with it (that's not my job or my place here), but let's keep it front and center that these cuts aren't just a political football. They're really cutting into us as a nation.
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