This article from the Yuma Sun is a demonstration of what’s happening right now with what the military is paying for with education–cutbacks. As fiscal crisis continues to pound at America with reckless abandon, the military is forced to streamline their offerings in more and more programs. What we’re finding is that the sooner you use them and the better a job you do of ensuring a solid outcome from your studies, the more hopes you have that the government will pay out your military education benefits.

Witness my blog earlier this week on the My CAA program. Using it early meant not only using it before the benefits were reduced, but also using it early on in your career–as was indicated by the changes that the benefits as they stand now are only applicable for the spouses of E5s and lower on the enlisted end and O3s and lower on the officer end.

This situation is different. The cutbacks in payment for a second DANTES test are reflected in the outcome of your test. The reason for this may have been that too many people, in an effort to get credit for tests as soon as possible to meet requirements for degree programs or to obtain credits, were taking them before they were ready. Somewhere along the line, this trend was observed and the military acted accordingly. The rule now is that the military will no longer pay for tests that are re-taken.

As mentioned previously and as specified in the article, this is designed to make sure that nobody is taking the test without studying or ill-prepared and hoping for the best. In defense of those who made this decision, there was probably considerable oversight in that area and that’s something that needed to be addressed to save money.

However, the bigger picture is that of the tightening pursestrings of the government on how and where military dollars are allocated. This means that while there are still many dollars still out there for you to take advantage of for furthering your education, there are now also that many more pitfalls you may encounter that you should be aware of along the way.

Do not take your education, or the use of your education dollars provided by the miltiary service of you or someone else,lightly. As recent trends would indicate, they are not a perpetual resource with infinite reserves. Use them well, but use them wisely.