{"id":41602,"date":"2022-01-04T15:34:41","date_gmt":"2022-01-04T15:34:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/uncategorized\/2022\/01\/04\/congress-demands-answers-on-armys-tuition-assistance-failure\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T03:31:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T03:31:16","slug":"congress-demands-answers-on-armys-tuition-assistance-failure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/news\/your-army\/2022\/01\/04\/congress-demands-answers-on-armys-tuition-assistance-failure\/","title":{"rendered":"Congress demands answers on Army\u2019s tuition assistance failure"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

After nearly a year of troubles for Army IgnitED, the service\u2019s new platform for troops to access their education benefits, Congress has demanded an update on how many soldiers and colleges are still affected by the site\u2019s failed rollout.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A section of the fiscal 2022 defense policy bill, which President Joe Biden signed into law in December, says the service has less than two months to submit a report to Congress detailing \u201cthe estimated date when the Army IgnitED program will be fully functional.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Army also has to provide <\/b>a timeline for when soldiers who incurred out-of-pocket costs and universities can expect the service to pay its bills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Army places a priority on voluntary education and on the personal and professional development of our Soldiers,\u201d said Army spokesperson Lt. Col. Gabe Ramirez in an email to Army Times. \u201cWe will provide an update to Congress in accordance with the FY22 NDAA requirement.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While most soldiers are now able to request new courses using the platform, the report will offer the most accurate glimpse yet into how many servicemembers are still suffering after the Deloitte-designed website\u2019s failed launch in March 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More than 100,000 of the service\u2019s active duty and reserve component troops use their federal tuition assistance benefits<\/a>, which are available exclusively through the portal. Soldiers who use the benefit receive up to $4,000 towards 16 credit hours of courses per fiscal year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Issues with migrating data from the old tuition assistance platform left the service unable to reimburse schools for soldiers\u2019 tuition. Army leaders scrambled in spring 2021 to implement an exception to policy program that asked colleges and universities not to kick out soldiers due to nonpayment while the data issues were resolved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not all schools honored the request, though, and some solders had to pay out of pocket to continue their education. Many soldiers also found that their spring 2021 courses that had been submitted and approved in the old GoArmyEd portal were not paid, as Army officials had decided to delay processing those payments until the new platform was online.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In some cases, soldiers had to pay the Army\u2019s outstanding debts to receive their diplomas or transfer their credits. Some troops who were counting on other student aid such as Pell Grants to afford books and equipment for their classes were left high and dry when their schools applied the aid to their unpaid tuition balances instead of paying them to the soldier. Other soldiers put their education on hold, opting to avoid the process altogether.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Army Times first reported<\/a> the issue in April, and other outlets<\/a> continued to cover its progress after a legislative letter-writing campaign from Reddit users raised awareness of the problem. In July, Army Times spoke with an NCO<\/a> who was still awaiting reimbursement and had been forced to charge educational expenses to a credit card.<\/p>\n\n\n\t