Texas Hazelwood Home of Record Declared unconstitutional.

[esob]

Thought I'd leave this here just in case any other vets are in the position:

http://www.chron.com/local/educatio...r-Hazelwood-benefits-to-non-Texas-6041396.php

TLDR; Hazelwood provided up to 150 hrs of free tuition to veterans at any public school. The catch is that you had to declare Texas as your home of record when you entered active duty. A federal judge found this clause to be unconstitutional and forced the University of Houston to allow the veteran to be entitled to the Hazelwood benefits even though he entered active duty in Georgia.

Personally this is a win for me as I fall under the same category. Even though I served the majority of my time in Texas and have been a resident for nearly 20 years, I'm not (or wasn't) eligible for Hazelwood.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[psychic_detective]

The problem is that if the state now finds it costs too much they will water it down to cover the extra people, just like when the post 9/11 used to cover the entire month of bah, but now only covers to the day. If everyone just moves to Texas to utilize the last 150hours it covers and then moves away it goes against the spirit of the law, which was to give Texas residents an incentive to come back and stay in Texas.

I'm all for giving away money to help people, but now there is an incentive to have the state legislature just water it down. So... Yay win for this one guy I guess. Possible loss for everyone else in a couple of years when the legislature meets again.

 

[esob]

Actually if you read the opinion of the judge that ruled on the case, he makes a pretty sound argument that the change would more likely bring additional veterans to the state that would stay. Anyway, the cost control issue is significantly more burdened by the legacy provision than anything else. Allowing dependents to use the benefit raised the cost from 24 million to 169 million. All the data sets I've seen point to the fact that the majority of Hazelwood user are now actually dependents, not veterans, and that in no way is aligned with the spirit of the law.

 

[ZX10R]

Yes I hope they decide to cut off dependents before they take it away completely. But knowing how the government works they are probably going to shut it all down. Texas already has the 2nd highest amount of veterans of any state, they don't need incentives to bring in more. Plus I don't think the Hazlewood act would really be an incentive since so few veterans go on to MS/Law/ect after using GI bill. Of course free dependent tuition will be attractive though.

TVA still states: "Current Hazlewood eligibility requirements remain unchanged, except for the individual specifically named in the lawsuit."

 

[esob]

TVA still states: "Current Hazlewood eligibility requirements remain unchanged, except for the individual specifically named in the lawsuit."

Yeah, however with the current legal precedent I'd be willing to wager that simply filing a lawsuit against the university would cause them to cave. The cost of defending the suit, especially in the face of legal precedent would be more than your tuition is worth. Coupled with the extreme likelihood of losing the case anyway, any university's general counsel would be silly to urge anything other than tuition waiver for claimant. I could be wrong but unless the VA approves my ch 31 I'll be finding out personally I guess, since my intent is to sue for Hazelwood benefits at my school.

 

[psychic_detective]

When everyone starts suing, the short term benefits will increase for those that sue. The long term effect will be that everyone loses. The legislature will meet in less than two years and when it does this will surely be on the agenda.

It's great that Texas is great and we have great programs for vets, but it's not going to lead to a friendly environment from this ruling. Since you already see the benefit to suing, I'm sure others do too. One state cannot become the de facto funder of education for veterans and their children for the country.

 

[esob]

Well the elephant in the room is that if they rescinded the legacy act and only provided benefits to actual veterans and not dependents, there would be no cost issue at all. The current state of things is that the majority of the Hazelwood costs are incurred on behalf of people who have never served.

To elaborate further, a Rice university study by Dr. Michael Cline and Dr. Steve Murdock studied the cost implications of the dependent and legacy inclusions. Between 2012 and 2014 the program costs increased by 58.9 million. The breakdown is as follows:

6.4 million - Increase due to actual veterans using the program
3.8 million - Spouses using the program
48.7 million - Children using the program

Also, interestingly enough, the fixed point residency was not even part of the original act.

 

[ZX10R]

Yeah, however with the current legal precedent I'd be willing to wager that simply filing a lawsuit against the university would cause them to cave. The cost of defending the suit, especially in the face of legal precedent would be more than your tuition is worth. Coupled with the extreme likelihood of losing the case anyway, any university's general counsel would be silly to urge anything other than tuition waiver for claimant. I could be wrong but unless the VA approves my ch 31 I'll be finding out personally I guess, since my intent is to sue for Hazelwood benefits at my school.

Yes in your case it is definitely worth it to try. I'm guessing since you're in DFW you're going through the VA near TCC S campus? If they keep trying to pull strings/lie to you about benefits I would send letters to senators/congress and they will likely cave.

 

[esob]

Yes in your case it is definitely worth it to try. I'm guessing since you're in DFW you're going through the VA near TCC S campus? If they keep trying to pull strings/lie to you about benefits I would send letters to senators/congress and they will likely cave.

Yeah, I was actually chapter 31 before and tried to change my career plan and they said no since I had used up nearly all my benefits. I'm going to reapply but I'm not optimistic about the results, and since voc rehab ate up all my GI Bill AND I'm over 180 hrs (thus ineligible to take out student loans), its either Hazelwood or raid my retirement to pay for schooling. It's likely I would be SAP ineligible for Hazelwood as well because of the B.S. 60 hrs the Army awarded me for my MOS so at the end of the day I'm more than likely going to be paying for my entire undergraduate out of pocket. That said, once I have my undergraduate degree and assuming the Hazelwood ruling stands, I will be eligible for Hazelwood again and TBH, it's probably smarter to use it for med school than for undergrad anyway.