As of fall 2010, veteran students of the San Diego Community College District are required to pay enrollment fees up front, which they were told they would be paid back for. However, veterans are concerned with the amount of time it’s taking to receive their money.

In 2010 Mesa College was fourth in the nation for the number of veteran students. LaWanda Foster, Veterans Affairs Supervisor and Certifying Official at Mesa College, said this year they will certify at least 1,200 students. “All these students’ paperwork gets sent out of state to get processed which could take anywhere from ten days to two weeks,” said Foster.

Sam Mize, a 20-year veteran, is concerned with why SDCCD has this new policy while other community colleges have a different policy that doesn’t require the veterans to pay all their fees upfront.

After the veterans pay their fees like other students, they must go in to the VA office and fill out a worksheet. “It is the student’s responsibility to come in and fill out the worksheet,” said Foster. Veterans are required to fill out the worksheet every semester so that they can receive their benefits.

The process veterans have to take to get their benefits involves many different components. One component is that the VA payments only pay for courses that are required for their major.

Class attendance is also part of the reason why veterans have to pay upfront. “Students add and drop classes during the first week of classes which changes tuition cost,” said Foster.

Schools in the SDCCD are one of the only ones in the area that require upfront payments. Schools such as Southwestern College, Palomar College and San Diego State University have not implemented this new policy.

“It’s not fair,” said Mize, “It’s not a good policy, they need to change it.”

Mize, along with the other veterans, doesn’t want this concern to be thrown to the “bottom of the pile.” He wants everyone to be aware of what is going on and what they have to deal with.

“We need to have more voices added to the mix,” said Mize

Veteran students are not the only ones that are worrying about school benefits. Active duty military also might be facing cuts to tuition assistance programs.

Andrew Tilghman, Staff Writer for the NavyTimes, writes, “Active-duty members should expect significant cuts to the highly popular tuition assistance program next year under a Pentagon plan to reduce the cap on how much the military pays for voluntary education.”

A plan that is being speculated would drop the annual benefit from 4,500$ to 3,500$ and individual classes from 275$ to $175 per undergraduate credit hour and $225 per graduate credit hour.