Committee reviews bill S.130 to make National Guard tuition benefits permanent and expand eligibility

Senators and National Guard officials on the committee reviewed S.130, a bill to amend the Vermont National Guard Tuition Benefit Program, saying the measure would incorporate temporary changes from Act 140 (2022) into the permanent statute and expand eligibility to include graduate degrees.

The bill would add graduate degrees to the program and preserve the program’s existing limit that only one undergraduate degree be funded by the program; it would also allow a Guard member to receive a graduate degree funded by the program even if they previously received an undergraduate degree under the program. Legislative counsel Beth St. James said S.130 “is an amendment to section 28 57 and title 16, which is the National Guard Tuition Benefit Program statute.”

Why it matters: Committee members and Guard leaders said the tuition benefit is an active recruiting and retention tool for the Vermont National Guard. Brig. Gen. Hank Carter, the state’s deputy adjutant general, told the committee the Guard “fully support[s] S.130,” saying the program has helped recruiting and retention and that use of the benefit has grown since the program’s expansion in 2018 and after the 2022 pilot.

Most important provisions discussed

- Grad…