COUNTERING MILITARY RECRUITMENT
Articles: Leaving Military: Veterans
Veterans tuition bill targeted
Chris Barge, Rocky Mountain News
February 13, 2008
The Colorado Department of Higher Education has quietly called on lobbyists for the University of Colorado system to persuade lawmakers to kill a bill that would grant free tuition to decorated combat veterans.The bill, sponsored by Rep. Rafael Gallegos, D-Antonito, sailed through the House State, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee on a 9-2 vote last week. But opponents say the state's colleges and universities can't afford it.
In an e-mail Monday to two dozen Capitol lobbyists, Cathy Wanstrath, a lobbyist for the Colorado Commission on Higher Education, laid out a plan to kill the measure when it is heard by the Appropriations Committee on Friday.
"I think you all agree we need to kill this bill, and (the Colorado Department of Higher Education) has been happy to take the lead," according to the memo obtained Tuesday by the Rocky Mountain News. "However, we need your help in the next couple of days to count the votes to kill it in committee."
Gallegos said that Wanstrath already had contacted him.
"I understand we're talking about money here," he said. "I have done my best to explain the benefits of this. We have an obligation to care for our veterans."
Gallegos, an Air Force veteran, said he struggled to put himself through college at the University of Southern Colorado (now CSU- Pueblo) on the GI Bill when he was married with two children.
He said that some of the inspiration for his bill came from Christina Bybee, mother of Lance Cpl. John Doody, who grew up in Colorado and was shot in the right leg while serving as a Marine in Iraq two years ago. His injuries will prevent him from becoming a police officer, as he had dreamed. Now Doody wants to become a lawyer.
"Would you please create and pass a bill so John can realize his new dream," Bybee wrote in an October e-mail to Gallegos. "He's permanently disabled now from serving our country and is only asking to be educated so that he can do even more to benefit his fellow citizens.
"He doesn't want to be taken care of by the government for the rest of his life . . . he wants to continue serving his country but in a new way."
David Skaggs, director of the state Department of Higher Education, said that as a Marine Corps veteran of Vietnam, he has empathy for what veterans who have been decorated for combat action have gone through.
"Our position on this is taken with enormous regret because of this, but we simply have no idea what the price tag on that would be," Skaggs said.
The Legislative Council staff has said that accurate information does not exist on how many potential recipients might benefit from the bill.
But the staff noted that if 10 undergraduates took advantage of the tuition waiver at CU-Boulder for four years, it would cost the school $216,720.
A "hugely constrained" budget has no room for such a waiver,
Skaggs said, adding that it also would force CU's medical school to waive its $25,000 tuition for each decorated veteran.
HB 1068
The bill would provide free state tuition to individuals who were legal Colorado residents at the time of the military action for which they received the Purple Heart or a higher combat service medal. Veterans also would have to meet the one-year state residency requirement prior to enrolling at school.
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