The California Department of Veterans Affairs (CDVA) web site used to describe a generous non-resident fee waiver for qualifying veterans prior to 2009. This fee waiver was honored at all California Community Colleges, California State University, and University of California schools.

In its place we now have a benefit that is only good for active-duty service members who are already stationed in California.

Here is what the CDVA’s benefits page USED to show:

This was great.

And now, check out all the restrictions attached:

Ugh, not so great.

Here is why I have a problem with this:

I saw the fee waiver on the CDVA web site back in 2008 when I first applied to UC Santa Barbara (still residing in Colorado). I even called the veteran’s officer at CSU Northridge (back in 2008) to verify the information just because it sounded too good to be true (she assured me it was valid).

Because the new GI Bill (CH 33) details were still up in the air at the time I applied, no one knew if they were going to pay the full out-of-state fees for veterans using the bill. So, I assumed that if the new GI Bill didn’t pay my out-of-state fees, I would have it covered with the fee waiver listed on the CDVA site.

I even had a 2nd backup plan:

The Yellow Ribbon program was being introduced as another way to redeem your “go to school for free!” military entitlement at the more expensive universities across the country that were over the VA’s payment limits. So I assumed that maybe the program would cover out-of-state tuition as well, and it was a distant third option anyway, it wouldn’t come to that …. would it?

THIS IS WHY I DON’T GAMBLE:

The GI Bill only pays the maximum in-state rates, only UC Merced & UCLA are participating in the Yellow Ribbon program, and the rules (somehow) changed for the non-resident fee waiver as well!

How in the hell was I supposed to know that all three options would change and that I would be left with ~$7,000 in extra fees each quarter.

What a pain in the ass.

Now, even with all of the financial aid (loans & grants) that I receive, I am still (struggling) to pay thousands of dollars extra each quarter for charges that I thought would have already been paid for by either the state, or the Department of Veterans Affairs.

The sad thing is that no one can tell me anything about the non-resident fee waiver program — nobody at the CDVA, or at UC Santa Barbara. I’m unable to find anything on the web about a bill or a law that passed in order to place more restrictions on existing veterans benefits. You don’t see that too often! So now I’m posting this in hoping I can get the attention of someone who might know what happened … and to vent a bit.

I sent a couple emails to staff at the CDVA and in the UC system. If anyone responds, I’ll post it up here. If anyone can give me some more information on this, I would be absolutely thrilled.

UPDATE: The CDVA had erroneously placed that message on their web site. The actual education code in California did not change, this was just a ‘legal wording’ screw-up by the CDVA in an mistaken effort to make the law in the education code clearer, and more concise. They apologized and admitted it was a bad decision on their part, which has since been corrected.