According to an agreement reached between Gov. Glenn Youngkin and Virginia college presidents last week, students returning to campus next month won’t be “further adversely impacted” by changes to the Virginia Military Survivors and Dependents Education Program program — which took effect July 1, but are likely to be repealed next week.
In a July 3 statement, Youngkin said university presidents “agreed to not allow this gap in time to disadvantage or harm our military heroes, first responders, and their families.”
It’s not fully clear what the agreement between the governor and colleges entails; neither the governor’s office nor most universities offered up details when asked for details by VPM News. But Lee Andes with the State Council of Higher Education of Virginia said that the university presidents and the chancellor of the Virginia Community College System committed to administer the program as it existed before the May 13 budget changes.
Representatives from the Virginia Military Institute and George Mason University confirmed Andes’ statement, telling VPM News that they aren’t making any changes to VMSDEP for the upcoming fall semester.
“While the program and the funding sources continue to be reviewed, VMI cadets will not face a tuition impact,” VMI spokesperson Michelle Ellwood said.
Jenna Rowe attended orientation at Radford University on Wednesday with her 18-year-old daughter, who is starting as a freshman in the school’s nursing program this fall. She was told during a financial aid meeting that VMSDEP is also operating as usual at Radford.
While Rowe was reassured, she’s still concerned about what any future changes to the program could mean for her two children who have not yet started college — and for her two daughters already in college.
For example, Rowe said her 18-year-old picked Radford for its nursing program after only applying to Virginia schools. Had she known that changes to the program were on the horizon, she would’ve encouraged her daughter to apply to colleges in other states where it’s more affordable to live and study.
“We made financial decisions based on this program,” Rowe said.
Rowe said her family didn’t open college savings accounts for their children because they knew they would have access to VMSDEP; her husband is a retired Marine who became disabled during a deployment to Afghanistan in 2008.
Rowe said that Virginia is such a veteran-friendly state that the “last thing you would think that they would ever do is something like this.”
Data from SCHEV reviewed by VPM News shows that between 1% and 4% of enrolled students at Virginia public universities received VMSDEP waivers for the 2022-23 school year.
Institutions have cited the rising number of students using the VMSDEP benefit in their requests for more state funding for the tuition waiver. For example, nearly 800 students received a VMSDEP tuition waiver at VCU in the 2022 fall semester — over 8 times as many as in fall 2012.
“VCU strongly supports the Virginia Military Survivors and Dependents Education Program and is hopeful the program can be funded sustainably,” wrote spokesperson Mike Porter in a statement to VPM News.
But Rowe pointed to the small percentage of students overall who receive the state-mandated benefit.
“If [students receiving VMSDEP waivers] are the problem, then maybe the universities need to open their books,” Rowe said.
