Today's a great day for this news to break.


It's a long article but this is the meat of it:

Army National Guard Captain Raymond D. Hill II was 39 years old on Oct. 29, 2005, when a roadside bomb struck his Humvee. He was on a humanitarian mission in Baghdad, delivering books and toys to an orphanage.

Earlier this month, Alyssa, the youngest of her father's two daughters, graduated from the University of Memphis.

Starting this fall, the university will not charge a dime to students like her.

The university already accepts the national Folds of Honor scholarship, which undergraduate students under the age of 24 can receive if a parent was severely injured or killed while on active duty. Spouses of any age can also receive it if they have not remarried.

The $5,000-a-year scholarship helped pay for Alyssa's education.

Next year, the university will accept that scholarship as payment-in-full.

It will be the first higher education institution in the country to do so.

Folds of Honor recipients who have not yet graduated, in addition to those arriving in the future, will no longer need to worry about finding ways to pay for the rest of their education.


https://www.commercialappeal.c...e-members/582488002/

Wow! great news. Well done University of Memphis!

Great news; instead of giving free tuition to illegals or refugees. About time we are taking care of deserving Americans, and not the rest of the world.

This should be a standard across the country for military and police officers killed in the line of duty. Their children should get free tuition at any state school.

Good for U of Memphis to lead the way on this. It's the least we can do for those who sacrifice everything for us.

EXCELLENT! And I agree with Vaalic. Should be the standard.

RMD

Let's hope this starts a trend.

Love it!

Decent of them.

I agree this is a very good idea, and one I enthusiastically support, but with a caveat. These kids get their tuition comp'd as long as they achieve some agreed upon cumulative GPA per semester. Even these kids should be required to perform to 'earn' their paid tuition.

quote:

Originally posted by bigdeal:
I agree this is a very good idea, and one I enthusiastically support, but with a caveat. These kids get their tuition comp'd as long as they achieve some agreed upon cumulative GPA per semester. Even these kids should be required to perform to 'earn' their paid tuition.

Agreed.

What do you think that GPA should be?

3.0

Well whaddya know. They did right! It's been 10+ years since I went there, but I'm proud of them all the same.

Go U of M! Good on you.

That's good to hear!

Ohio has something similar for police. Wonder if they will do something for military.


EDUCATION BENEFITS
Under the Ohio Revised Code 3333.26,
children and the spouse
of an officer who dies in the
line of duty, and who is admitted to any State university or college as defined in Division (A)
(1) of Ohio Revised Code 3345.12, community college, state community college, university
branch or technical college, shall
not be required to pay any
tuition or any student fee
for
up to four years of education, which shall be at
an undergraduate level. Benefits are available
to children
under age 26
or age 30 with military service who have been a resident of Ohio for
at least one year. There is no age limit for
spouses. A former spouse who was divorced or
legally separated from the deceased person is e
ligible if he or she is the court-ordered
custodial parent of a minor child of the marriage.

Yes.....honourable and very generous.

On the other hand, what of my children should I die on the job site or in my daily commute? I would in no way take away from those that make the sacrifice but how do you reconcile the worth of the lives of the rest of us?

quote:

Originally posted by roberth:

quote:

Originally posted by bigdeal:
I agree this is a very good idea, and one I enthusiastically support, but with a caveat. These kids get their tuition comp'd as long as they achieve some agreed upon cumulative GPA per semester. Even these kids should be required to perform to 'earn' their paid tuition.

Agreed.

What do you think that GPA should be?

I have no idea, but since I want these kids to succeed in life, and since they are getting their education for free, I think the required GPA should be above 3.0.

I was giving this a bit more thought this evening and something occurred to me. Why only the children of 'fallen' soldiers? If someone is living in the dirt in a fire base in Shitstanizan, away from their family, earning essentially minimum wages, while mom is a world away trying to scrimp and save and pay the bills, why aren't we doing 'something' to assist their children get an education? And what of the children of first responders killed in the line of duty right here in the US? Do we value them less than those fighting abroad?

The more you ponder this, the more slippery the slope becomes. I like the idea of aiding the children of military families who have lost a parent, but I fear once this Pandora's Box is opened it may be very hard to limit that aide as it expands into all other sorts of categories.

quote:

Originally posted by bigdeal:
all other sorts of categories.

Such as the hue of one’s epidermis, or one’s ethnicity, last name, sex, or ability to play a child’s game well? This is one of those things that I’m just as glad isn’t my responsibility to decide, but the number of “fallen” in any category of public servants who go into harm’s way for the rest of us is a miniscule fraction of the population. If school administrators can handle the demands for special treatment of all those other far-larger categories of deserving and/or “disadvantaged,” I suspect they could figure this one out as well.

With all the SJW's clamoring for rights and benefits for every nutcase and aberrant freak on the planet, I am surprised that such a common-sense benefit and probably universally-supported idea would be considered new and hasn't been implemented almost everywhere.
Congratulations to the U of M!

Good for them, but you'd still have to live in Memphis for 4 years.