Hoeven: North Dakota selected for Air National Guard tuition assistance pilot program

Statement

Senator John Hoeven announced today that the National Guard Bureau has selected North Dakota as one of 14 states that will participate in a pilot program to begin providing college tuition assistance to members of the state's Air National Guard. The Air National Guard expects the Federal Tuition Assistance pilot program will begin in late 2020. Hoeven has pressed the Air National Guard to create a tuition assistance program to match the program already in place for the Army National Guard. Additionally, as a member of the Senate Defense Appropriations Committee, Hoeven secured $10.8 million in the Fiscal Year 2020 Defense Appropriations Bill to support this effort.

"Tuition assistance is a critical part of the benefits we provide to active duty military personnel, and it should be provided to the members of our Guard as well," said Hoeven. "I've been working hard to establish an Air National Guard benefit program, and I'm very pleased that North Dakota will be included in the initial stages of the new program."

The Air National Guard is expected to roll out a nationwide tuition assistance program in coming years. The announcement today represents the first stage of establishing the new Air National Guard program.

Hoeven also continues his efforts to bring parity between active duty and reserve component servicemembers by ensuring they can utilize both GI Bill benefits and Federal Tuition Assistance. Last week, Hoeven led 12 of his fellow senators in urging Defense Secretary Mark Esper to restore full education benefits for members of the National Guard and Reserve. The full text of the letter can be found here.

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