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BILL # HB 2240 |
TITLE: tuition waiver; children; veterans; disabilities |
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SPONSOR: Blackman |
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PREPARED BY: Grace Timpany |
STATUS: As Introduced |
The bill would establish a tuition waiver at the public Arizona Universities and Community Colleges for students who are children or dependents of a member or former member of the U.S. Armed Forces whose disability rating as determined by the VA is 30% or higher. To be eligible, students would have to be age 30 or younger, not have been convicted of a felony and not have already obtained post-secondary credits at limits specified in the bill.
Estimated Impact
The General Fund impact cannot be precisely determined in advance, as it would depend on the degree to which newly eligible individuals would respond to the incentives created by the bill, and would require additional analysis of the demographics of Arizona's veteran population and future military population trends.
The state's General Fund support of community colleges is tied to enrollment. Community colleges receive aid based on changes in the student population. An increase to the net population for a community college would have the effect of increasing the amount of state aid from the General Fund, but students choosing to transfer to a university with the waiver might offset population growth. If the bill incentivizes new students to attend community colleges, the community colleges could experience foregone tuition and an increase in General Fund appropriations.
We estimate that the bill could reduce annual tuition revenues to the universities by $12.1 million and reduce annual tuition revenues to the community colleges by $1.6 million. ABOR estimates an annual tuition revenue reduction of between $43.3 million and $49.8 million. ABOR's estimate assumes that every potentially eligible student would attend a university and pay full sticker price. Our estimate is based on the average award distribution of a military-related scholarship program that ABOR administers. The community colleges also estimate the bill would reduce tuition revenue but do not provide a total fiscal impact.
Our estimate assumes the following:
1) According to U.S. Census Bureau 2024 data, approximately 100,630 veterans have a service-connected disability rating of 30% or higher and of those, 30% have children. Census data and ABOR's postsecondary attainment report indicate that 25% of the Arizona residents are college-aged, 48% of high school graduates attend college, and 83% of those attend a public institution. Based on this data, we estimate that 3,000 individuals could be eligible for the award. The bill could also incentivize newly eligible individuals to attend college but we cannot determine the magnitude of this impact in advance.
2) ABOR administers a related Spouses of Military Veterans tuition scholarship to Arizona public, postsecondary institutions. Of students receiving this scholarship, 62% attend a public university, receiving an average award of $6,517 and 32% attend a community college, receiving an average award of $1,442.
3) Other statutory tuition waivers are generally applied as "last-dollar aid" or after all other aid including federal aid, scholarships, or public grants. Dependents of disabled veterans may receive other forms of financial aid or already qualify for benefits under existing programs such as the Post 9/11 GI Bill and the Survivors' and Dependents Educational Assistance (DEA) program. If the tuition waiver is applied as "last-dollar aid," the magnitude of the tuition revenue reduction could be lower than our above estimate depending on the amount of other aid received by eligible students.
4) Under current state law, tuition waivers are provided to certain demographics. According to ABOR's FY 2025 financial aid data, the average tuition waiver award for resident students is $6,208.
2/18/26