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Tuition Assistance is Necessary for Well-Rounded Education

By Robert F. Williams, Ph.D.

Historian, Army University Press

May 23, 2025

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A tightly framed photograph shows the back of the head and shoulders of a bespectacled Soldier who sits at a desk and works on a laptop. Because of the image’s limited depth of field, the Soldier is in focus while his computer’s screen is blurred. However, one can make out a highlighted text document in the onscreen window of an editor such as Microsoft Word.

Tuition assistance is essential to developing a well-rounded, educated NCO corps. Soldiers’ education strengthens the Army and prepares them for future challenges. (U.S. Army photo)

The liberal arts are essential to a well-rounded education, especially for the Army’s tactical and technical experts — the NCOs. The April 2024 report about the Army’s desire to reexamine and potentially cut the tuition assistance program is at odds with the sort of professional force the Army purports itself to be (Beynon, 2024). Fortunately, the Army decided to maintain the program and increase the available funding by $500 per year (Hurd, 2024).

One thing is sure: A college-educated NCO corps is critical to all the Chief of Staff’s priorities. By strengthening the profession through education, we can enhance warfighting skills and prepare for transformation to deliver combat-ready formations (Winkie, 2023).

The Harding Project, an Army Chief of Staff initiative aimed at developing professional writing across the force, would seemingly then only focus on officers as opposed to enlisted and NCOs (Griffiths & Lipsky, 2023).

The Army needs to use programs like tuition assistance to encourage NCOs to earn a more balanced education, which will assist them as both leaders and citizens in an Army and a country with an uncertain future.

A woman in glasses, a red blouse, and black slacks stands behind a wooden counter with a gray top extending from the foreground of the photograph’s frame to a white cinderblock wall in its background. On the other side of the counter, three uniformed Soldiers stand. One consults a brochure from a stand on the counter, another lifts a page from a group of papers, and the last writes into an open binder. All four smile and seem to interact with one another, their focus turned to the Soldier who turns the pages at the photograph’s center.

Connie Schauer, education services specialist, speaks with Soldiers who stopped by the 88th Readiness Division Education Center at Fort McCoy, Wisconsin, June 7, 2021. The Army needs to use programs like tuition assistance to encourage NCOs to earn a more balanced education, which will assist them as both leaders and citizens. (U.S. Army photo by Zachary Mott)

The Army’s NCOs are some of the smartest in the world, and they’re encouraged to write in all Army professional publications — not just the NCO Journal but also Military Review — and branch journals.

Cutting their ability to access higher education through tuition assistance and similar programs would have the adverse effect of widening the gap between the educated officer class and the traditionally lesser-educated enlisted class.

I don’t think that’s what the Chief of Staff of the Army wants, and I certainly don’t believe that’s the direction the Army wants to go. However, those would be the second- and third-order effects that any decision to cut tuition assistance would bring.

Furthermore, college education is an important part of NCO self-development. The Army seeks Soldiers who are adaptive learners and critical thinkers. Individuals demonstrate these skill sets through a willingness to complete college coursework.

Centralized NCO Evaluation Board After Action Reviews (AARs) highlight that those NCOs who pursue higher education demonstrate a commitment to self-development and recommend that Soldiers continue to seek civilian education (McLachlan, 2024; Department of the Army, 2023a; Department of the Army, 2023b; Department of the Army, 2023c; and Department of the Army, 2022).

A woman in cap and gown with what resembles a diploma in her left hand uses her right hand to shake the hand of a uniformed Soldier who stands between another Soldier and a man in a professor’s cape and garb. Behind the men are a line of flags, and behind the woman, a line of others in cap and gown. An interior shot, the photograph’s action takes place within a structure with high beams and what appear to be white canvas walls, suggesting a tent-like structure capable of housing military vehicles for ground or air.

Sgt. Nikolle Moncada, Area Support Group – Kuwait (ASG-KU), shakes hands with Lt. Col. Christopher Nohle, commander, ASG-KU, during the college graduate recognition ceremony at Camp Beuhring, Kuwait, June 30, 2023. Taking classes while on active duty is critical for Soldiers to succeed outside of uniformed service. (U.S. Army photo by Claudia LaMantia)

Furthermore, it’s also important for first-term Soldiers to get a few college courses under their belt so that when they use their GI Bill afterward, they have a few semesters completed — giving them a leg up when they leave the Army.

Personally, the tuition assistance program is a major reason why I was able to earn a doctorate in history when I left the service. My educational journey began by taking classes online while deployed to Kunar Province, Afghanistan, in 2008. From there, I took regular eight-week classes online until I achieved first my associate degree and later a total of 80 credit hours toward a bachelor’s degree.

Those credits were critical when I transferred to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, allowing me to complete my bachelor’s in roughly 18 months. From there, since I still had GI Bill benefits remaining, I went to graduate school at Ohio State — something I don’t think I would’ve even thought of if I’d had to spend a full four years at Chapel Hill.

Tuition assistance and taking classes while on active duty were critical for me to succeed outside of uniformed service. With so many veterans leaving the military and having a tough time finding purpose, an easy program like tuition assistance should be simple enough to maintain to assist them when they transition.

A close-up photograph shows the arms and chest of a Soldier who writes into a white notebook with a teal-colored mechanical pencil.

College education is an important part of NCO self-development. The Army seeks Soldiers who are adaptive learners and critical thinkers. Individuals demonstrate these skill sets through a willingness to complete college coursework. (U.S. Army National Guard photo by Staff Sgt. Kelly Wiebe)

The cost is relatively low for the return. According to Army veteran-turned-journalist Steve Beynon’s (2024) reporting, “about 101,000 soldiers across all Army components use the benefit each year — averaging about $218 million in cost” since 2020. That sum is paltry when compared to the billions spent on failed initiatives such as the Future Combat System (Library of Congress, 2009) or the RAH-66 Comanche attack helicopter (Hollings, 2021).

A college education teaches critical thinking and creates more well-rounded human beings, an outcome needed by an Army more in transition than ever. The future is uncertain, as it always is, and an uncertain future requires Soldiers at all echelons who can read, think, act, and write coherently and critically to solve complex problems. Fostering broad critical thinkers through college education funded by the Army’s tuition assistance program is essential to maintaining a well-rounded force.

Certainly, the program should be scrutinized, especially regarding the sorts of universities that stand to benefit from its continuation. Many for-profit universities are incredibly predatory in nature and should be reined in. I was lucky that UNC-Chapel Hill mostly accepted credit from the for-profit but regionally accredited American Military University.

However, we can’t count the net positive that this benefit brings to the force in simple dollars and cents. Instead, the benefit is in the long-term prospects of Soldiers, both during their time in service and afterward as citizens of the U.S. The Army owes it to itself and to the nation to foster a well-rounded, intellectually curious, and intelligent NCO corps.

References

Beynon, S. (2024, April 8). “Army’s Premier Education Benefits May Be on Chopping Block, with Tuition Assistance Cuts Being Considered, Too.” Military.com. https://www.military.com/daily-news/2024/04/08/army-weighing-cuts-tuition-assistance-move-could-slash-benefits-used-100000-soldiers-annually.html

Department of the Army. (2022). Field after action report – Fiscal Year 2023 (FY23) Regular Army (RA) and United States Army Reserve (USAR) Active Guard Reserve (AGR) and Individual Mobilization Augmentee (IMA) Sergeant First Class (SFC) Evaluation Board. https://www.hrc.army.mil/wcmt-api/system/files/files/26653_0.pdf

Department of the Army. (2023a). DA Pam 600-25: U.S. Army Noncommissioned Officer Professional Development Guide. https://armypubs.army.mil/epubs/DR_pubs/DR_a/ARN38811-PAM_600-25-000-WEB-1.pdf

Department of the Army. (2023b). Field after action report – Fiscal Year 2023 (FY23) Regular Army (RA) and United States Army Reserve Active Guard Reserve (USAR AGR) / Individual Mobilization Augmentee (IMA) Master Sergeant (MSG) Evaluation Board. https://www.hrc.army.mil/wcmt-api/system/files/files/27135_0.pdf

Department of the Army. (2023c). Field after action report – Fiscal Year 2023 (FY23) Regular Army (RA) and United States Army Reserve Active Guard Reserve (USAR AGR) / Individual Mobilization Augmentee (IMA) Staff Sergeant (SSG) Evaluation Board. https://www.hrc.army.mil/wcmt-api/system/files/files/26953_0.pdf

Griffiths, Z., & Lipsky, T. (2023, September 5). “Introducing the Harding Project: Renewing Professional Military Writing.” Modern War Institute. https://mwi.westpoint.edu/introducing-the-harding-project-renewing-professional-military-writing/

Hollings, A. (2021, November 8). “RAH-66 Comanche Stealth Helicopter: Why Did It Fail?” The National Interest. https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/rah-66-comanche-stealth-helicopter-why-did-it-fail-195863

Hurd, C. (2024, December 11). “Army Approves Tuition Assistance Increase, Adjusts Credentialing Program.” Army News Service. https://www.army.mil/article/281853/army_approves_tuition_assistance_increase_adjusts_credentialing_program

Library of Congress, Congressional Research Service. (2009). Army Future Combat System (FCS) “Spin-Outs” and Ground Combat Vehicle (GCV): Background and issues for Congress (Report No. RL32888). https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/RL32888

McLachlan, W. (2024, March 29). “More Than Promotion Points.” NCO Journal. https://www.armyupress.army.mil/Journals/NCO-Journal/Archives/2024/March/More-Than-Promotion-Points

Winkie, D. (2023, December 21). “‘Discipline’ Is the New ‘People First’ Atop Army Leaders’ Agendas.” Army Times. https://www.armytimes.com/news/your-army/2023/12/21/discipline-replaces-people-first-atop-army-leaders-agendas

 

Robert F. Williams, Ph.D., is a historian with Army University Press and Combined Arms Center at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. A former airborne infantry NCO, he served in Iraq and Afghanistan and earned a doctorate from Ohio State University in 2023.

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