ASSEMBLY DEMOCRATS NEWS RELEASE

Singleton & Burzichelli Measure Urging Feds to Implement Best Practices to Make it Easier for Military Service Members to Attend College Advances

(TRENTON) – Legislation Assembly Democrats Troy Singleton and John J. Burzichelli sponsored to memorialize the federal Department of Defense to adopt policies that would make it easier for military members to attend college was released Monday by the Assembly Military and Veterans Affairs Committee.

“One of the biggest problems active student military members face is balancing their military careers with student life,” said Singleton (D-Burlington). “In these conflicts, the military always wins, often to the detriment of the student’s education and bank account.  A solution exists and it needs to be implemented so that educational opportunities of our military men and women don’t suffer.

“With more and more reservists being called up to active duty, the old mantra of ‘one weekend a month, two weeks a year’ no longer holds true, to the detriment of their education,” said Burzichelli (D-Cumberland/Gloucester/Salem). “A draft memorandum of understanding between the feds and universities already exists to correct this problem; it just needs to be put in place.”

The Singleton/Burzichelli resolution (AR-80) memorializes the Department of Defense and colleges and universities across the country to implement a “Tuition Assistance Program Memorandum of Understanding”

The memorandum contains specifics about what school policies, residency requirements and credit transfer policies must be disclosed in order to help service men and women make an educated choice in what college to attend.  Schools wishing to receive military tuition assistance must agree to the provisions of the memorandum and sign it.