As some of you may already know the Department of Defense stopped all funds that had been awarded to Military Spouses under the MyCaa. I could not believe my eyes as I read what they did. Without warning, without letting anyone know, they just withdrew the monies that had already been awarded to "re-evaluate" the program and its effectiveness. While I support the decision to make sure the program is running how it was intended I do not and can not support them pulling the funds that were already awarded.
I for one was awarded these funds, luckily for me I am now in my last 2 classes before finishing my program. I still had 3000 dollars in my account, I wasn't sure if I would be using it or not but it was there. But unlike myself, there were a lot of spouses who were not finished and who were depending on those funds for next semester and ones after that.
As military spouses we don't ask for much, and in turn we don't get much. This was something for "us" finally. A program to further our educations in careers that would follow us on the never ending PCS move.
What I encourage everyone one to do is call your congressmen and senators and tell them how you feel about what the DOD has done. If you are not a spouse of a military member but support our military please help support the families. I for one have started calling, writing and emailing.
This is a slap in the face to all the spouses that thought they had money for school and had it yanked without warning.
Here is a link to the story so you can read it yourself.
http://www.militarytimes.com/news/2010/02/military_spousetuition_halt_021710w/
10 comments:
I am angry about this. One of my closest friends just started school and I know so many who have started school with this. It is like a slap in the face to our military. I hope this can be fixed fast.
I agree Julie..it is unsat and someone better do something about it.
Good writeup. How true - it's really poor form on the part of DOD to cut people off AFTER they've been approved.
I assume part of the purpose of the funding is to EASE the stress on military families. Unfortunately, the way they are handling this is creating more stress than if there were no program.
I encourage everyone to post their opinions about this on their representative's website...
The DoD has made it clear that this is a temporary pause in a pilot program that got a much greater response than they were anticipating.
Granted, they could have and should have let participants know they were suspending it before they did.
But they chose a reasonable time to enact the pause - it's the middle of February, most schools have already started classes for their spring semester, or certainly will be well within the 30 day window, so most spouses should be all set for their spring classes. Most people don't classes over the summer, or if they do it's just one or maybe two to catch up on prerequisites for the fall.
This gives the DoD around 6 months to get everything squared away and make sure that the program is doing what they designed it to do - to meet the educational needs of spouses looking to further their employability in portable careers.
When they lift the hold, which they have stated time and again they will do, and as soon as possible, that $3,000 will still be available to you.
Anonymous
I think you are missing the big picture here, the program was suspended with NO notice. You are assuming a lot to think this won't effect many spouses. Most spouses attend on-line classes and there is no "spring" or Summer off in these types of classes. And it is safe to say that there were some spouses that were planning on taking classes in March that can not now because the money was stopped and could not have signed up because you could only sign up 30 days in advance. Any way you look at it what they did was wrong. Like I stated earlier I support them looking at the program to see if it was working but not at the cost of taking back funds already awarded. And I am speaking for many spouses not myself, I am finished my program as of this next month but many others won't be so lucky. Especially those like me that were going to school when their spouses were deployed and will surely be home now before this "suspension" is over. Thank you for your comment but it seems to me you haven't looked at all the ways this will effect already stressed spouses.
I was just about to enroll in my program, so the disapearance of the funding affected me!
Anonymous
My hope is that they realize how this impacted the spouses quickly and bring it back soon.
I too just went in to use the $4390 dollars I had remaining to pay for a class in this March and was told "operational halt". This bugs me for many spouses are working hard in school to make a better life for their family and this help decreased a lot of this stress. I am hurt, angry and feel disappointed once again by the DOD.
I am sorry to hear you are cut off from your funds. It was not a cool thing to do at all. Again the funds that were awarded should not have been stopped. We are doing everything we can to get the funds released but the problem seems to be something different with each explanation..hopefully soon, hang in there as I know it is frustrating.
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