AB 659

This bill modifies the residency requirement for the tuition and fee remission program for certain veterans and their spouses and children enrolled in University of Wisconsin System institutions and technical colleges. The bill makes a similar change with respect to grant eligibility for certain veterans and their spouses and children enrolled in private nonprofit colleges. The bill also modifies the UW System nonresident tuition exemption for certain veterans.

Under current law, if certain criteria are met, veterans and their spouses and 17- to 25-year-old children are eligible for full remission of tuition and fees at UW System schools and technical colleges for up to eight semesters or 128 credits, whichever is longer. Under the veterans fee remission program, the veteran must be a resident of this state when he or she entered military service or be a resident of this state for at least five consecutive years immediately before the veteran registers at a UW System school or technical college. Under the fee remission program for the spouse or child of a veteran who suffered service-connected death or disability, the veteran must have been a resident of this state when he or she entered military service or one of the following must apply: 1) if the veteran, while a resident of this state, died on active duty, died as the result of a service-connected disability, or died in the line of duty while on active or inactive duty for training purposes, the veteran must have resided in this state for at least five consecutive years while an adult, or 2) if the veteran received at least a 30 percent service-connected disability rating, the veteran must have resided in this state for at least five consecutive years immediately before the veteran’s spouse or child registers at a UW System school or technical college. In addition, if a veteran was not a resident of this state when he or she entered military service, the veteran’s spouse or child is eligible for tuition and fee remission only if the spouse or child has resided in this state for at least five consecutive years immediately before the spouse’s or child’s enrollment in a UW System school or technical college.

The bill lowers from five years to three years the durational residency requirement for veterans and their spouses and children under the tuition and fee remission program under circumstances in which the veteran was not a resident of this state when he or she entered military service.

Under current law, the Higher Educational Aids Board administers a grant program under which HEAB makes grants to private nonprofit colleges to offset tuition charged to enrolled veterans and their spouses and children who, if they had been enrolled in a UW System institution or technical college, would qualify for tuition remission as described above.

The bill also lowers from five years to three years the durational residency requirement for veterans and their spouses and children for purposes of this HEAB grant program.

Under current law, a person generally must be a Wisconsin resident for at least 12 months prior to registering at a UW System institution in order to be exempt from paying nonresident tuition. Current law also includes nonresident tuition exemptions, under which certain nonresident students pay resident tuition rates. Under one exemption, a student is eligible for resident tuition if the student is a veteran, is a resident of and living in Wisconsin at the time of registering at a UW institution, and was a Wisconsin resident at the time of entry into active duty.

The bill eliminates the requirement that the student had been a Wisconsin resident at the time of entry into active duty as a condition of eligibility for the nonresident tuition exemption for veterans.