My daughter and I are enrolled in Tidewater Community college in the fall. We were enrolled for the previous year and thought we would be grandfathered in under the old rules. If we are not, we won’t be able to complete our degree programs, as we do not have the funds to cover it despite what fasfa says. Please include community college enrollment in the grandfathered language.

The language grandfathering students who plan to go to college next year is too limiting. Many are left out. While the task force is investigating, perpetuation, grandfathering should be extended to any and all who plan to use the program for the 2024/2025 academic year.

The VMSDEP participation and cost numbers are inflated, cumulative, misleading, and inaccurate. The costs are reported as though each student is full-time. The costs are not passed onto other students. Marginal cost increase in de minimis. Cost increase because of salary increase and declining enrollment Waiver comparison calculation is vases onFull-time participation. Misrepresentative. Your state chart comparison is inaccurate. If Ch 35 not applied, then put excepting ch 35 in the language. Pull up the language ‘dollar for dollar’ not proportionate. More restrictions for May 15 enrolled students.

The requirements to be grandfatheted need to be clarified immediately. Families are trying to plan.

The language in the budget bill makes VMSDEP the last payer behind a list of numerous federal and state educational assistance programs. First on that list is “all federal aid under 38 USC Part III dollar-for-dollar”. This includes Chapter 35 Dependents Educational Assistance (DEA) which is awarded to dependents of those rated by the VA 100% permanently and totally disabled. Eligible students have used these funds to offset non tuition educational costs, predominately room and board. The VMSDEP changes will now require students use their DEA funds to pay for tuition rather than other college expenses. GI Bill benefits also appear to be first payers ahead of VMSDEP. This is unacceptable. Other “first payer” requirements in the VMSDEP change language includes state grants and scholarships, a portion of Pell grants and the Expected Family Contribution determined by the required FAFSA application. The net effect of the first payer requirements will mean that Gold Star dependents and dependents of severely disabled service members will get no benefit from the VMSDEP program.

The language in the budget bill and ED7 have many concerned that students will be on a four-year running clock to use or lose their VMSDEP benefits. This would eliminate the ability to take a gap year. My first son had to take a gap year due to medical issues. Some take a gap year to complete mission work, family emergencies or for other needs. VMSDEP benefits should not be tied to such a time limit. It should continue to be based on eight semesters of benefits within a much larger window of time to complete.

The Governor’s ED7 directive, signed 15 May, states those who are currently enrolled or committed to an intuition by 15 May 2024 are grandfathered against the changes in VMSDEP. The 15 May deadline seems arbitrary and raises many concerns. - While my daughter committed to George Mason University by this date, she is waitlisted at Virginia Tech. If she is accepted to and commits to Virginia Tech later this summer, will she lose here grandfathered protection? Will students who transfer from one institution to another jeopardize their VMSDEP grandfather eligibility? - People are reporting that SCHEV has stated that individuals must also have been enrolled in VMSDEP by 15 May 2024 to receive grandfathered protection from VMSDEP changes. If this is true, my daughter will lose her grandfathered protection. My older children enrolled in VMSDEP post high school graduation as the window to apply for VMSDEP benefits for their first fall semesters did not open up until 1 July. We were given no advance notice of the arbitrary 15 May 2024 deadline. - As you may be aware, this year’s FAFSA application process was wrought with problems and delays. Parents have told me that their children did not commit to institutions by the deadline as they were awaiting their FAFSA decisions and had no advance notice of the deadline. Will they lose their grandfathered protections?

The language of the budget bill states tuition waivers and stipends are limited to an associate’s degree or first bachelor’s degree. How the state will implements this provision is unknown but it creates many concerns: - First, the language clearly seems to extinguish the use of VMSDEP for work on a graduate degree. My third son busted his chops to get a full year of college credit while in high school. He is on track to get his BS in three years at VT and planned to use his final year of VMSDEP for graduate school. If he is not eligible for VMSDEP funded grad school, my son is considering using all four years to get a double major but the budget bill’s “first bachelor’s degree” clause may eliminate that possibility as well. As a current VMSDEP enrolled college school student, I am unsure if he is grandfathered or not for purposes of grad school or a double major but those who follow him in this situation clearly will not be. They should be. - My second son opted to use the Pathways Program. This program allows students to get their first two years of college at NOVA Community College. If they meet certain bench marks, they are automatically accepted at a state four year college to complete a bachelor’s degree. My son earned an associate’s degree at NOVA and was accepted to George Mason for a bachelor’s degree. The budget bill language seems to indicate that benefits will end upon the award of an associate’s degree, killing the effectiveness of this program. -The Governor’s Program allows students to earn an associates degree while in high school. Many parents are worried that this program will impact and truncate their child’s VMSDEP benefits.

Executive Directive 7 states: “In recent years, changes that made more individuals eligible for VMSDEP and increased awareness ofthe program have led to exponential program growth. Over the last five years, program enrollment at our public institutions of higher education has increased by 341 percent from 1,385 students in 2018-19 to 6,107 students in 2022-23. Similarly, costs have also increased over the same period by 444 percent, from $11.9 million to $64.8 million. At current growth rates, the program is projected to enroll over 18,000 students in 2025-26, totaling more than $180 million in tuition and fees waivers.” In 2018/19, VMSDEP was limited to combat disabled. https://www.dvs.virginia.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Frequently-Asked-Questions-2018-2019.pdf VMSDEP was expanded to include those not disabled in combat 2019. That caused a large but expected growth in the program. If that unique growth spurt is included in the extrapolation to projected over 18,000 eligible students in 2025-26, that is dishonest given 2018/19 does not include tier one (non combat) participants. This is akin to saying someone grew a foot taller between 12 and 18 years of age and therefore is projected to be 50 feet tall later in life. The projection going from 6,107 in 22-23 to over 18,000 in 25-26 needs to be explained. Show us the math. What does the projection look like based purely on post program expansion growth?

Please reinstate VMSDEP immediately. The way the new bill was enacted so suddenly and callously is disheartening to say the least. Individuals and families who sacrificed greatly and are now being left out in the cold by the leaders in the state that they decided to call home. Why were there no intensive studies completed prior to these changes? Why do our leaders think it’s okay to rip the rug out from under citizens who have sacrificed and planned for years thinking Virginia had their backs? Please do not teach our children that our leaders are so eager to throw away their futures based on insufficient information and hasty decisions that have an enormous impact.

I am appalled at Gov Youngkin signing the budget bill into law. My children's mother and I have planned and budgeted so that our children can use this entitlement and keep them as debt free as possible. I served 22+ years, deploying numerous times in combat situations, resulting in me being 100% disabled. My oldest child is using my Post-9/11 GI Bill as he was accepted to Culinary school in NY. My youngest 2 children are excited to go to school in VA and use this entitlement to become engineers, now with this change, it greatly affects their hopes and dreams. This is is outrageous that this was snuck in, then signed, with little notice. I expect that our elected officials will fix this slap in the face to our veterans.

My name is Jennifer Economy. After hearing about the recent gutting of the VMSDEP program with little to no notice to the families of those who use the program, I was deeply disappointed. I used this program as the spouse of a 100% disabled veteran and my three children are currently using this program for community college. An "earned" veteran benefit in Virginia going to a needs-based right before a holiday that is to honor our fallen is concerning. Families who are relying on this program to help cover the costs of higher education for their children were given 2 days to come up with an alternative, causing undue financial stress at a time when many are struggling. I feel this was poorly executed and question the numbers used to determine how this program was causing such a financial burden to universities that it was the only "waiver" program to be cut. I am asking this program return to its prior requirements before May 13. I am also asking that it remain in the hands of the DVS and not SCHEV, as DVS has a greater interest in providing assistance to these families. Thank you.

VMSDEP was gutted following false pretenses presented by the universities and SCHEV. The program should be reinstated till an unbiased study has been conducted. Promises were made to Virginia residents and those promises were broken with a 48 hour warning.

Please reinstate VMSDEP. My husband is 100% disabled veteran. The last payer language directly affects our son’s ability to utilize this program. It was designed to be an earned benefit, not need based. My son will graduate high school in June 2025. He is devastated at the thought this program was ripped away from him.

VMSDEP needs to be restored immediately to its pre May 13th form to mitigate any further damage to an already suffering Disabled veteran and Gold Star community. Gutting earned benefits by sneaking legislation into the annual budget on the basis of very questionable data provided by SCHEV, before instituting a deep dive into that legitimacy of that data and an impact study of potentially affected families was a catastrophic error by members of the legislature. If the Commonwealth truly values vets, then members of the legislature will show the courage and ethics required to say, "We made a mistake, let's reassemble and fix it today."

Would like an explanation of the gutting of the program. Under 4 points. 1. Bottom line, that $65 million dollar amount is inaccurate. SCHEV, DVS and the schools themselves have wildly different numbers, and what we have been calling for all along is a reconsiling of these numbers. Each of these entities recognizes this and has stated it privately, we are hopeful this week there will be a public comment discussing this VERY issue we have been hammering since early April. 2. These students only account for 5% of in total tuition waivers in the state. No other tuition waiver program was targeted, period. Changes to one wavier program, should be made across the board. 3. SCHEV has admitted of their own accord that they calculate numbers differently depending on what outcome they want to show 4. SCHEV is only interested in advocating for higher education institutions as opposed to providing sound data. We have also asked them numerous times for the marginal cost to educate a student and have been told they cannot calculate that.

The gutting of VMSDEP has been a devastating blow to those families what have sacrificed the most. The vulnerable families of fallen and disabled veterans deserve to be protected and yet have been the only group targeted in the cost cutting attempts for the tuition waiver programs. Families are left scrambling with no notice after their careful planning and trust in Virginias promise. All those who are responsible or complicit in what amounts to the largest rollback in veterans benefits in the history of the state should be ashamed. Right this wrong. Restore VMSDEP now.