Iraq Veteran to Get in-State Tuition Rate
Aug. 20–AUSTIN — An Austin college has found a way to give a Texas-born Iraq war veteran low-cost, in-state tuition after first telling him that he did not qualify as a resident of his beloved Lone Star State, officials announced Friday.
Carl Basham, a Beeville native honorably discharged from the Marine Corps as a corporal after two tours of duty in Iraq, was recently denied residency tuition rates by Austin Community College.
The school initially said he needs to be physically present in Texas for a year in order to qualify, meaning his tuition bill was about five times higher than what residents pay.
After Basham’s story ran in the Star-Telegram this week, Texas officials scrambled to help him, saying no soldier should be penalized for being away on active military duty.
On Friday, after Basham was treated to several days of mushrooming national media attention, officials found a way to help him: a relatively obscure state waiver designed to assist Texas military veterans.
“We think this will resolve this situation,” said ACC President Steve Kinslow. “We think this brings a nice resolution in that Carl is being treated well and ACC is also, of course, in compliance with state law. That’s what everybody has been working for all along.”
Kinslow also announced plans for an ACC scholarship aimed at helping returning soldiers attend the college.
A relieved Basham brought the necessary documents, with a media horde in tow, to the college’s admissions office Friday afternoon.
“This will be great,” Basham said. “Hopefully, everything will turn out for the best, not just for myself, but for all the future veterans as well.
“It is a widespread problem. There is a lot of individuals that have problems trying to get into their home state.”
State Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn, who first alerted the state higher education bureaucracy about Basham, is calling for legislative changes giving military veterans in-state tuition rates no matter where they entered or exited the service, an aide said.
“Men and women who risk their lives in the service of their country and choose to make Texas their home deserve to be treated like who they are — real Texans — and they should pay in-state rates,” said Strayhorn spokesman Mark Sanders.
The breakthrough in Basham’s case came after Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson, who served as a Marine, identified a waiver provision in state law.
Patterson sent Basham a letter late Thursday — signing off with the Marine motto, “semper fidelis,” which is Latin for “always faithful” — in which he spelled out what the former soldier needed to give ACC.
Basham is already enrolled at the community college and is studying to be a paramedic. He is registered to vote in Travis County, registered his car there several years ago and has an Austin bank account, among other things.
But college officials had told him that he would have to re-establish his Texas residency by living at least year in the state. That’s because when he entered the Marine Corps nearly a decade ago, he was in Louisiana, where his family lived briefly in the 1990s.
Basham said he couldn’t return to Texas sooner because he’s either been deployed overseas or in California, where he was stationed at Camp Pendleton.
Although he expects to receive federal GI college benefits in a few months, Basham had been facing high upfront costs — about $2,600 for the fall semester, compared with about $500 for Texas residents.
But the land commissioner, after conducting research on state residency laws, said Basham merely needed to provide military leave papers in which he designates Texas as his residence, plus his Texas voter and automobile registrations, to qualify for a waiver.
Patterson expressed concern that other veterans may not be aware that they qualify for in-state tuition and other benefits, including low-interest loans available through his office. He urged veterans to call the land office at (800) 252-VETS (8387).
“You might have some benefits coming your way,” Patterson said.
The line is answered Monday-Friday from 6:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.
—–
To see more of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.dfw.com.
Copyright (c) 2005, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Texas
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.
For information on republishing this content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.), (213) 237-4914 (worldwide), fax (213) 237-6515, or e-mail reprints@krtinfo.com.