|
TITLE: tuition waiver; military; veterans; family |
|
|
SPONSOR: Blackman |
STATUS: As Introduced |
|
PREPARED BY: Micaela Larkin |
|
Description
The bill provides tuition and fee waiver scholarships of up to 150 credit hours at Arizona's public universities and community colleges for certain military members and veterans that entered the service in Arizona. The following persons are eligible for the waivers under this bill if they can meet the bill's residency requirements:
· Veterans of the active military with a disability rating of 70% or higher
· Spouses and children of current members or veterans of the United States Armed Forces
· Spouses and children of current members or veterans of the National Guard and Reserves with service outside the United States in a war zone for over 120 days.
Estimated Impact
The General Fund impact cannot be precisely determined in advance, as it would depend on the degree to which newly eligible individuals would respond to the incentives created by the bill, and would require additional analysis of the demographics of Arizona's veteran population and future military population trends.
Outside of Pima and Maricopa Counties, the state's General Fund support of rural community colleges is tied to enrollment. Community colleges, except Maricopa and Pima, receive aid based on changes in the student population. An increase to the net population for a community college would have the effect of increasing the amount of state aid from the General Fund, but students choosing to transfer to a university with the waiver might offset population growth.
If the bill incentivizes new students to attend community colleges, the community colleges could experience foregone tuition and an increase in General Fund appropriation.
To the extent that the bill affects current students, the bill would reduce monies generated from tuition. The universities reported a total of 2,787 undergraduate students with Arizona residency that either were estimated to veterans with a 70% or more disability rating or to have a dependent affiliation to the active military, reserve or guard, but could not determine if all affiliated military members entered the service in Arizona. Data for graduate or professional students was not available. Based on a pool of 2,787 students, the bill could reduce collected tuition based on the average tuition paid of $3,884 by $10.8 million. Estimated based on published current tuition and guaranteed rates, the universities estimated a possible $31.9 million in foregone tuition for the 2,787 students. The amount of foregone tuition would depend on the number of these students that utilize other federal military or institutional aid.
If the bill incentivizes new students to attend the universities, the Universities could experience foregone tuition and student population increases. State support is not tied to increased university enrollment, and growth would not generate an automatic increase in funding from the General Fund.
The universities estimated the loss of current tuition from the current undergraduate students that are residents of the state and affiliated dependents of active duty military, guard or reserve members, or veterans at $31.9 million as follows, but did not have data to determine if the associated military member entered the service in Arizona. The university estimates differ from the JLBC Staff estimated in that they use a "sticker" price for tuition.
· Arizona State University: $8.6 million based on 800 students at annual cost of $10,822
· Northern Arizona University: $10.2 million based on 951 students at $10,650
· University of Arizona: $12.8 million based on 1,007 students in year at annual cost of $12,691
(Continued)
Arizona State University also estimates 29 veterans with a 70% or higher disability to be enrolled in their system. This group would account for an additional $313,800 in tuition.
The community colleges have not provided estimates for the bill.
Analysis
Current state law provides waivers to certain Purple Heart veterans of the active military with a disability rating of 50% or more, certain veterans of the National Guard receiving a Purple Heart or a medical discharge due to injury, and the spouse and children under 30 of certain post-Sept. 11, 2001 of Arizona veterans killed in the line of duty. Persons that have utilized these benefits and other statutorily defined waivers are excluded in the bill from these waivers.
The cost of the benefit to the state and to the public postsecondary institution is dependent on utilization that cannot be determined in advance, and the pool of eligible applicants. Additional analysis would be required to determine the number of current service members and veterans in Arizona that entered the service in the state. Preliminary analysis suggests that the largest pool of applicants would be from veterans of the active military, National Guard, and Armed Forces Reserves that entered the service in Arizona. The current living veteran population in Arizona is around 500,000, but the percentage that entered the military in Arizona is unknown. The American Community Survey estimated Arizona's veteran population with a disability rating of 70% or higher at 30,100 in 2017 with 57.8% over 55 years of age. The 2018 Military Demographics Report provides some insight into the pools of current military members that would also make up the eligible pool under the bill. Arizona's 5 major bases and other posts report 19,587 military members with 8,531 spouses stationed across the state. Of their 15,111 dependents, 3.4% are over age 19. Arizona's current National Guard and Armed Forces Reserves membership is 14,995. National data indicates the following about members of the National Guard: 41.4% married, 44.3% have children, and 14.6% of the children from Guard and Reserve families are between 19 to 22.
Local Government Impact
The bill could result in forgone community college revenues but could also increase their state formula funding due to higher enrollments. Higher enrollment could also increase their operating costs. The net fiscal community colleges is unknown.
2/28/20