1. The current TA method is $4,500 per fiscal year and a maximum of $250 per semester hour, but will now have a cap of up to 124 semester hours allowed for undergraduate program and 42 semester hours for graduate level courses.

2. Keep the $4,500 per fiscal year maximum but eliminate the $250 per semester hour cap. This cap limits the type of education that our Airmen can receive and force them into less reputable schools. This cap was good from 2005-2010 but the times have changed and so has the cost of tuition and with that change we as an Air Force should adapt as well. The average cost of tuition for a bachelor’s degree from a reputable online or campus university is between $250-500 per semester hour. For a master’s degree in a reputable school Airmen could pay roughly $450-750 per semester hour. In the past master’s degrees were frowned upon, this was also the old way of thinking. There is no reason why Airmen should be discouraged from improving their education and leadership capabilities and this is exactly what a bachelors and master’s degree does for our Airmen. Leaving the $250 cap is discouraging to the Airmen because that leads to additional out of pocket expenses for tuition on top of fees, books, and materials. Airmen are our greatest asset, so why not give them an opportunity to pursue higher education with more reputable schools and less out of pocket expenses.

3. The expected benefits of this idea is that our Airmen will have educational freedom to attend more reputable schools with higher quality of education that will significantly contribute to their present and future leadership potential. Airmen will be able to receive bachelor’s and master’s degrees without additional expenses for tuition with the exception of fees and textbooks which can often peak to $300 per book. Finally, this change will show Airmen they are appreciated and their education matters to the Air Force.

4. There will be no cost to implement this and it will only require an update or change to the policy and if manpower is low I will gladly head that up. Furthermore with this idea there will be no increase in the Air Force budget or expenses because the same $4,500 fiscal year cap will remain in effect.