The agency in California that oversees veteran education benefits has warned several schools with satellite campuses in the state that they could soon lose their eligibility to accept GI Bill funds which would, in turn, affect their students.
Inside Higher Ed reports the California State Approving Agency for Veterans Education has sent suspension letters to Missouri-based Park University, Webster University and Columbia College, as well as the University of Maryland University College, Central Texas College and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.
At issue is apparently the state approving agency’s “new interpretation of federal regulations," according to Inside Higher Ed. In at least one case, Park University, CSAAVE officials told the school its California campus was merely considered an off-campus instructional site, and not a branch campus, and that it could only approve this location if it was in the same state as the institution it is dependent on. Another reason for the suspension was that Park’s campuses in question offer college courses, but not full degree programs.
Schools that received the suspension letters have 60 days to come into compliance.
A San Diego Superior Court this week granted the three Missouri schools a temporary restraining order on the suspension, giving CSAAVE until Sept. 21 to provide evidence of why the suspension is warranted.
CSAAVE did not respond to the publication’s request for comment on the ruling.
Military Times contributor and former reporter Natalie Gross hosts the Spouse Angle podcast. She grew up in a military family and has a master's degree in journalism from Georgetown University.
