Military Spouse Scholarship Program & Education Benefits
military spouse
Scholarships for College for Military Spouses
Aug 31st
I’ve received lots of email asking about if there were any scholarships for college for military spouses. In this post, I would like to explain about what scholarships military spouses could use for their college tuition and how to apply for them.
Military Spouse Residency Relief Act
Aug 9th
Military Spouse Residency Relief Act
The 2009 Military Spouses Residency Relief Act, signed into law on November 11, 2009, is intended to lessen the state income tax filing burden on military families.
The new law says the non-military spouse can now retain the same home state of record/state of residence as the military spouse, as long as the non-military spouse’s sole reason for leaving that state was due to a permanent change of station (PCS) for the military spouse. For more details see Military Spouse Residency Relief Act Signed by President Obama, Aids Military Spouses, or contact your local military legal office.
- The MSRRA changes some basic rules of taxation with respect to military spouses
- 1) earn income from services performed in a State in which the spouse is present with their Service member (SM) pursuant to military orders and
- 2) that State is not the spouse’s domicile (legal residence). Under these conditions, the military spouse generally will not have to pay income taxes to that State. Depending on the laws of the domiciliary State, the spouse may be required to pay income tax to the domiciliary State.
- The law is complicated and fact specific, and because its effect will depend on the interpretations of each of the States, SMs and their spouses are encouraged to seek free, confidential advice from a legal assistance office. Legal assistance offices can be found at http://legalassistance.law.af.mil/content/locator.php . More >
who:
Military Spouse Friendly Schools
Aug 3rd
Things that you need to consider before choosing any schools or colleges for your spouses.
Lots of military related publishers put Allied American University on the Top of the Military Friendly Schools list that Allied American University offer additional benefits to student veterans such as free transcript evaluation and military designated support department. They recognized AAU for its effort to provide a military friendly education to service members and their spouses nationwide. Allied American University continually strives to tailor the educational experience to accommodate their unique learning needs and foster academic achievement. AAU offers online college courses in Business Administration, Computer Information Systems, Criminal Justice and General Studies. Check out to see more detail about Military Spouse Friendly School.
AAU will assess military course completion and military occupational experience listed on AARTS, SMART, CCAF and CGI transcripts to apply the maximum allowable transfer credit recommended by the Academic Council on Education (ACE). AAU also accepts credit-by-examination for AP, CLEP, DLPT, DSST, ECE and others.
Now, since DOD is accepting new transferable G.I. Bill, military spouses now enables to enroll college courses with their tuition assistance programs.
MyCAA News
Jul 28th
Following She of the Sea’s post below announcing the relaunch of the popular MyCAA program, there’s been a flurry of conversation about the revamped program.
MOAA issued a press release, which reads, in part:
The Military Officers Association of America (MOAA) has expressed strong disagreement with the Pentagon’s July 20 decision to severely limit military spouses’ eligibility for the wildly popular My Career Advancement Account (MyCAA) program
When the program was first announced last year, spouses were extraordinarily enthusiastic and grateful that the Defense Department was finally acknowledging it had some obligation to help them ease their own personal sacrifices,” Strobridge said. “That’s why they were so angry when the program was suspended in February, because they saw Defense leaders as backtracking on the only funded career program they ever had.”
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“The reopening of the program in March offered a renewed ray of hope, but now this new restriction yanks the rug out from under career spouses yet again,” Strobridge said.
“MOAA believes longer-serving spouses deserve fairer treatment, and we’ll be asking Congress to help them get it.”
Full release can be read here.
Military One Source’s MyCAA page can be found here.
militaryspousescholarships.com/blog/2010/02/what-is-going-on-with-mycaa.html”>Click here to see a comprehensive post which details the issues and timeline surrounding the abrupt closing of the program earlier this year.
Lots of chatter on twitter re MyCAA. And by the way, we recently joined the twitterverse and are looking each day to reach and interact with milspouses on twitter. If you have a twitter account, let us know by leaving it in the comment section or
Military Spouse Tuition Assistance Program Resumed!
Jul 26th
It’s a such a great new for all military spouses – The MYCAA program will be resumed on Oct. 25 2010.
An education- tuition assistance program for military spouses that proved too popular for its own good will resume in a scaled-back form this fall.
MyCAA
The Military Spouse Career Advancement Accounts program, or MyCAA, provided tuition of up to $6,000 for any military spouse to train for a portable career, one capable of enduring frequent military moves. The program was abruptly “paused” on Feb. 16 after a surge of applications threatened to drain its budget.
When it returns on Oct. 25, benefits will top out at $4,000, only spouses of junior service members – E1-E5, W1-W2 and O1-O2 – will be eligible, and they will be restricted to pursuing associate’s degrees, certificates and licenses. Of the 136,000 spouses participating in the program, 74,000 will no longer be eligible. A career counselor with Military OneSource, which runs the program, must approve each request.
The Military Officers Association of America strongly opposed the new restrictions.
“Limiting it mostly to spouses of first-term personnel – many of whom won’t stay for military careers – seems to miss the whole point,” said retired Air Force Col. Steve Strobridge, MOAA government relations director. “Allowing coverage for courses leading to associate’s degrees but not bachelor’s or master’s degrees that are essential for nursing, teaching and other portable careers seems equally incongruous.”
When MyCAA was shut down, about 44,000 of the 137,000 spouses enrolled were using the funds to pay for a bachelor’s degree or higher, said Air Force Lt. Col. April Cunningham, a Pentagon spokeswoman.
The program, which began in March 2009, was accepting about 10,000 new applicants a month and had reached a total of about 100,000. Then, in January alone, 70,000 were added, and 25,000 more during the first half of February. The plug was pulled.
An earlier iteration of the program was run by the state’s WorkSource agency and was also aimed at spouses of junior service members. Only those seeking certificate programs were eligible. When the Department of Defense took it over, it broadened eligibility.
When the program was paused, the DOD failed to promptly notify participants, angering many and leaving plans in limbo. Spouses set up a Facebook page titled “Take Action Against MyCAA Shutdown” that attracted more than 2,800 members. The program was reinstated in March to those who were already enrolled, but nobody else was allowed in.
Miles guessed that OC will have fewer MyCAA participants simply because a smaller number of spouses are eligible and there’ll be less money available.
Military Spouse Friendly Colleges and Schools
Apr 14th
As a military spouse, you may be eligible for education benefits through the following education resources:
- Scholarships, Grants, and Discounts
- Transferred Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits
- Tuition assistance and financial aid through service organizations
A few important criteria to choose top military spouse friendly schools are whether they offer MyCAA, and online programs and college degree where spouses can study their education at a comfort home.
- Allied American University
- Everest College
- Westwood College
- UOP
- Walden University
- Fremont College
- Grantham University
MyCAA program has been resumed
Mar 25th
A Message from DoD:
In the days following the announcement of a temporary pause of the Career Advancement Account – MyCAA – we have heard your feedback, suggestions and concerns. We are pleased to announce that the MyCAA program will resume operations on March 13, 2010, at 12 p.m., noon (EST) for military spouses who currently have existing MyCAA accounts. Those who have an existing account will have access to the entire Web site, including the ability to create and have financial documents approved.
We are currently developing options for the long-term management of the program and expect to be able to announce the details soon. Until then, no new accounts can be created. During this time, Military OneSource Spouse Education and Career Consultants will continue to be available to provide education and training, career exploration, assessment, employment readiness and career search assistance.
Tommy T. Thomas
Deputy Under Secretary of Defense
Military Community and Family Policy
Source: Military Spouse Career Advancement Accounts by Education4Military.com
Military Spouses Residency Relief Act (Introduced in Senate)
Jan 5th
II 111TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION S. 475
To amend the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act to guarantee the equity of
spouses of military personnel with regard to matters of residency, and
for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
FEBRUARY 25, 2009
Mr. BURR (for himself and Mrs. FEINSTEIN) introduced the following bill;
which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs
A BILL
To amend the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act to guarantee
the equity of spouses of military personnel with regard
to matters of residency, and for other purposes.
1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Military Spouses Resi5
dency Relief Act’’.
VerDate Nov 24 2008 04:21 Feb 26, 2009 Jkt 079200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S475.IS S475 jbell on PROD1PC69 with BILLS
A&FRC initiative supports spouses
Nov 25th
The Airman and Family Readiness Center held training for Joint Team Andrews key spouses last week as part of the Air Force Key Spouse Initiative in support of the Air Force’s commitment and designation of Year of the Air Force Family.
One spouse in attendance was Amy Stewart, wife of Maj. Matthew Stewart, 1st Airlift Squadron pilot.
‘‘I’ve been a Key Spouse for three years and I love what I do in trying to make a difference in my fellow spouses’ lives,” said Ms. Stewart.
The 1 AS has a high operations tempo, in which the Active Duty spouse is often away from home fulfilling missions in support of the Top 5, including the first lady, vice president, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, secretary of state and secretary of defense.
Ms. Stewart said the training received at the A&FRC proved to be very beneficial.
‘‘I had an opportunity to meet and network with spouses whose partners are deployed fairly regularly,” she said. ‘‘Though our Active Duty spouses in the 1 AS are not deployed with the frequency of other organizations, they are gone quite a bit when they are fulfilling the mission worldwide. So, we were able to share stories and experiences.”
During the training, spouses learned about deployments and missions of Team Andrews organizations, including the security forces and medical squadrons. They also learned about scholarships and employment opportunities available to them.
Ms. Stewart said one of the benefits of being a squadron’s Key Spouse is the opportunity to meet other spouses in your squadron and the closeness that evolves as a result – something which can be difficult in the National Capital Region since we can live anywhere in Maryland, D.C. or Virginia.
‘‘When you marry into the military, you marry into the military family, but when you are a Key Spouse and active in your squadron, you take it to a whole different level. You become family to so many spouses in your squadron and are all tight-knit, especially when our families are far away,” she said.
Ms. Stewart said the best thing about being a Key Spouse is making a difference. ‘‘As a Key Spouse you help open lines of communication between the commander, the squadron and the spouses – it just helps things run more smoothly and gets people together,” she said.
The Active Duty military members are appreciative of the Key Spouse efforts. ‘‘We’ve heard feedback from the Active Duty spouses how we, as Key Spouses, make their transition to Andrews more friendly and welcoming. That’s what we’re here for.”
The Key Spouse program is a formal commander and first sergeant program in the squadrons to provide informational support, said Master Sgt. Erika Perrin, 316th Force Support Squadron A&FRC NCO.
‘‘The Key Spouse program provides a viable means of sharing information – whether at the base level or at the squadron level – with their fellow spouses,” said Sergeant Perrin. ‘‘The Key Spouse program is important because it helps ensure family readiness – something that’s essential to mission readiness. Our Active Duty military members getting ready for a temporary duty or deployment can’t focus on the mission and be mission-ready if their minds and attentions are focused elsewhere.”
For more information on the Key Spouse Program, call 301-981-7087.
Source: http://www.capflyer.com/stories/112509/news_28221.shtml
Congress extended benefits to military spouses
Nov 25th
Good News for Military Spouses,
Spouses of troops may get to change their state residency to that of their military counterpart as President Obama is expected to sign the Military Spouse Residency Relief Act within the next few days.
The U.S. House of Representatives approved the Military Spouse Residency Relief Act as part of the House Suspension Calendar by a unanimous voice vote on Monday, according to a news release from the office of Rep. John Carter, R-Round Rock.
“This is fantastic news for our service families worldwide,” Carter said in the news release. “We should have done this long ago, but at least we are now on track to have a new law in 2009.”
It was approved by the U.S. Senate July 23, according to previous Killeen Daily Herald article.
The legislation was put on a fast track for passage into law this year at the request of Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C.
The bill, if signed by President Obama, will allow a military spouse to maintain the same residency as their service member regardless of where they are stationed, Carter’s communication director John Stone said.
The bill will affect where the spouses can vote and obtain their vehicle registration, as well as other residency-based functions.
Service members have had that option for decades, while spouses have not.
For more detail, visit online https://aiportal.acc.af.mil/mycaa
