PORTMOUTH, Va. (WAVY) — Military Families spoke to a large crowd in Richmond in support of the Virginia Military Survivors and Dependents Education Program, but some task force members say they aren’t sure if those veterans voices were truly heard.
Changes were enacted to the program when the budget was signed, now a special session is planned for lawmakers to head back to Richmond later this month to clarify wording in the bill.
Members of the task force and advocates for the program, however, are asking how “sustainable” is supposed to be defined, because they say there has been a lot of talk about sustainability for the program but no one has defined what that looks like.
“Quite frankly I’m worried that people left the task force meeting yesterday believing this was a solved problem when in fact we are far from that,” said VMSDEP Friends Co-Founder and Task Force Member Kayla Owen.
Kayla Owen says there weren’t many dry eyes in the house when the veteran and Gold Star families shared their stories of loss and how changes to the program would impact them.
The Governor called for a task force to look into making the program more sustainable for institutions after significant growth in the past five years. Legislative fiscal analysts say the program went from costing public colleges and universities $12 million in 2019 to $65 million last year.
“If everyone has a different definition of sustainability then what does that mean for what our end goal is for the task force?” Owen asked. “We’ve been given no precepts, no guidance. It could mean for the colleges and universities that sustainability to them means not having the program at all.”
10 On Your Side obtained new numbers from the Department of Veterans Services saying there are currently 14,202 approved applications for the program. 8,178 took advantage of the program for the ’23-’24 school year and 535 have exhausted their benefits.
Owen has been calling for a more comprehensive study by an external agency. She also isn’t confident that the language is going to be repealed by the house and senate despite Secretary of Veterans and Defense Affairs Craig Crenshaw and Secretary of Education Aimee Guidera assuring families it would be.
“They both assured everyone, who was there, that it was going to be repealed and the fact that was done with confidence without a statement from the senate is very concerning,” Owen said.
Owen heard that a private call took place on Friday night between select lawmakers, including Portsmouth Democrat Louise Lucas, and a legislative fiscal analyst who previously worked for SCHEV. Sen. Louise Lucas confirmed that call with the caucus — and said it was confidential.
“The Gold Star families are grandfathered and the folks who have already applied for the program, they are grandfathered so I don’t know how that got misinterpreted,” Sen. Lucas said during a brief phone call.
But families say when they call universities to check if they’re grandfathered or not, colleges are telling them they are unsure.
“There are people that are saying that I have no idea if they should send my child to college this fall because I don’t want to get hit with a bill after the fact when I thought I was grandfathered,” said Owen.
Governor Youngkin released a statement following the meeting:
“I’d like to thank the task force for convening yesterday and bringing together Gold Star families and our veteran community to discuss important concerns surrounding the recent VMSDEP changes. I look forward to the General Assembly returning by the end of the month to send me a bill that repeals and reverses the eligibility changes made to this important program. We heard from Virginians clearly, and we are working to repeal the changes this month while we allow the task force to continue its work and issue recommendations for the future of this program to be taken up in the 2025 General Assembly session.”
Senator Tara Durant from District 27 says many people in her area which covers Stafford, are impacted by changes to the program, that’s why she wanted to be a part of the task force. She released the following statement to us after the meeting:
“From the moment I became aware of the changes to the VMSDEP in the budget conference report, I have voiced my strong objections to legislating through the budget and denying Virginians an opportunity to weigh in on this issue. The listening session held by the Task Force on Monday is the first step in correcting this wrong.”
Owen says is was also concerning is that there was no mention of how the changes will impact first responders.
“We reached out to attorneys to confirm and verify that before we even made a phone call to talk to anyone about this,” Owen said. “And once we confirmed that why is it incumbent on another grass roots organization that’s impacted by this bogus legislation to reach out to our first responder brothers and sisters. that’s absolutely atrocious.”
The task force is set to meet again next month to discuss data and program costs.