The tuition grant program for national guard members administered by the Department of Military Affairs. (FE)

Current law also authorizes the Board of Regents of the UW System to establish differing tuition for different classes of students enrolled in educational programs, commonly referred to as differential tuition. Although current law does not define differential tuition, the Board of Regents adopted a policy describing differential tuition as tuition that is added to the base tuition level for the purpose of supplementing services and programming for students within a UW System institution. Differential tuition, which can be institution-wide or program-specific, must be approved by the Board of Regents and, after approval, may be incorporated into the institution's tuition schedule. For example, the Board of Regents has approved program-specific differential tuition at UW-Madison for students in engineering and business programs.

This bill clarifies that differential tuition, as applicable, must be included in calculating the maximum resident undergraduate tuition charged by UW-Madison when DMA determines the amount of tuition grants to award to eligible guard members. The bill also removes the requirement that grant applications contain the signatures of the guard member and the school's representative certifying course completion and compliance with GPA requirements. The bill requires DMA to rely on a qualifying school's certification in determining that an applicant has achieved the minimum GPA to be eligible for a tuition grant. The bill also requires DMA to make payment of the tuition grant not later than 30 days after receiving this certification.