As a result of the budget sequester, active duty members of the U.S. military
had already been informed that they wouldn't receive tuition assistance for any more classes during the rest of the 2013 fiscal year.
But now an even more rancid move is being made as officials seek ways to make cuts adding up to the $85 billion being sequestered this year: They are chopping college scholarships for children of troops who died fighting in Iraq or Afghanistan:
The awards, called the Iraq and Afghanistan War Grants, go to undergraduate students whose moms or dads died "as a result of military service performed in Iraq or Afghanistan after the events of 9/11," according to the Department of Education.
Awards that have already been established are safe, but as of March 1, the dollar amount for each new grant is being reduced by 37.8 percent from what a student would have received last year.
That means young adults will receive up to $2,133.81 less if they apply for a grant for the first time this year.
Of course, the pleas not to cut this part of the budget or that part of the budget are plentiful and often compelling. People are being hurt by the amazingly stupid approach to government spending the sequester has wrought. But making life harder on the children of men and women who lost their lives in wars they were ordered to fight really takes the prize for myopia and cold-heartedness. This is the best they could come up with while continuing to cover the massive cost overruns of projects like the
Flying Boondoggle?
It's not a matter of supporting the wars in which these young adults lost their parents. It's the duty we have as a society to ease the costs of the individual and family sacrifices that were made. This funding should be left alone.
We urge you, therefore, to join us in petitioning Congress to restore funding for Iraq and Afghanistan War Grant program so that the sons and daughters of fallen soldiers will have access to higher education.