FLINT -- The sequester axe is being felt nation wide for current and aspiring college students. Prior to the mandatory budget cuts military veterans could take advantage of 100 percent tuition as well as additional funding. After this spring semester the well is dry and vet's are going to look elsewhere to pay for school.
"I was injured in Iraq and i retired and I have a comp and pen claim with the VA and that would be about 14 hundred dollars I would lose a month," said student veteran Thomas Yonan.
Veteran and student Thomas Yonan is thinking about the last thing the sequester could take from him. His compensation and pension for service.
After eliminating tuition he says current and future soldiers are going to steer away.
"If I was to join right now and go to basic training, go and come back I would get the 1606 which would give me 300 dollars a month,” said U of M Flint Student Veteran Association President Kyle Cawood, "those guys don't have full time jobs, they count on that couple hundred dollars that they get for the weekend and they are trying to go to school but cutting the FTA that stops them dead in their tracks.”
Soldiers not seeking education may effect officer output, because you cant get into officer candidate school without an education.
"It’ll cut back on the amount of officers the amount of leaders in our service. Also those leaders that would get out of the service and become leaders in the community. I just don't understand it personally,” said Yonan.
The military is still offering what’s called the 1606 and 1607 which are versions of the GI bill where soldiers can get nearly 12 hundred dollars of assistance but only if the soldier has served active duty for two or more years.
