OLYMPIA…Today the House Higher Education Committee held a public hearing on Substitute Senate Bill 5002, a bill that would provide free tuition for spouses and children of killed, missing, captured or severely disabled military members Sen. Mike Hewitt, who announced his intention to sponsor the legislation last summer and dropped it on the morning of the first day to introduce Senate bills, spoke in support of SSB 5002 at today’s hearing. “This bill says thanks not only to our veterans, but to their families as well, for the tremendous sacrifices they have made on our behalf,” said Hewitt, R-Walla Walla. “Veterans’ family members should not have to worry about being unable to fulfill their education dream because they’ve lost a parent or spouse. We should help them out in every way we can, including this very practical way to give them the future they would have had. This is all about priorities, and this is a priority for us.”
Also testifying on the bill was Nicole Smith, whose father was killed in Iraq in 2003, during her junior year in high school. Smith’s dream was to attend Central Washington University and become a marine biologist. She applied for financial aid, and was approved for $2,000 a year toward the $15,000-a-year tuition costs. However, without her dad to help, the remaining tuition costs proved too high for Smith, who withdrew and gave up her dream of attending a four-year-college, registering instead at a local community college. Smith said she was distraught that people think that once a soldier dies, his or her family’s every need is taken care of – including college tuition. That suspicion was confirmed after a recent Seattle P-I story on Smith’s loss.
“(After the Seattle P-I story) there were over 100 comments about ‘a pathetic American looking for another handout,’” Smith said. “They think we’re looking for a handout, because everyone thinks that when a soldier passes away their family is taken care of in every sense of the word, and it’s not true. “The community college I go to right now, they don’t offer anything, and my books cost anywhere between $75 to $200 each, and you need two books per class – it adds up a lot.” Smith’s mother did receive a settlement amount upon her husband’s death, but Smith was concerned that her mother, who has been ill, will need the funds to live on and pay her medical bills. “I’d rather have her spend that money on herself rather than me,” she said.
Under SSB 5002, spouses would qualify for the tuition waiver up to 10 years after the date of the death, disability, or MIA or POW status as long as they do not remarry. Eligible children would be between the ages of 17 and 26, and could receive a tuition waiver regardless of marital status. The military member and child or spouse must have been a resident of Washington at the time of the military member’s death, capture or disability.
Currently, Washington’s colleges and universities may waive all or part of tuition and fees for the child or spouse of eligible veterans or National Guard members – but it is only optional. Hewitt’s bill would make it a requirement for colleges and universities to waive all tuition and fees for the children and spouses of eligible veterans.
Funding for the program would come from the state’s general fund, and would be separate from other types of tuition waivers, so veterans’ families would not have to compete for funding with other students who might qualify for different programs.
The bill was not voted on in committee today, but Hewitt said he hopes it will come out of committee and onto the House floor soon. The deadline to get Senate bills out of House committees is March 30, with the exception of bills with a fiscal impact – those bills have until April 2. The deadline to pass Senate out of the House is 5 p.m. on April 13. Twenty-eight other states have already passed similar tuition waiver bills.