More military spouses eligible for $4,000 tuition aid scholarship

More military spouses— including spouses of service members in all enlisted ranks — will be eligible for the Defense Department’s $4,000 tuition assistance program aimed at boosting opportunities for employment, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin announced Friday.

Effective Oct. 1, officials will expand eligibility for the My Career Advancement Account, or MyCAA, program to include spouses of service members in pay grades E-7, E-8, E-9 and W-3. That will make the benefit available to spouses of active duty members in the grades of E-1 to E-9, W-1 to W-3, and O-1 to O-3.

The expansion of the MyCAA program is part of a bevy of new initiatives Austin announced during his trip to Maxwell Air Force, Alabama.

Spouses can use the tuition assistance to pursue occupational licenses, certifications or associate degrees needed for employment. The program is open to those in any career field or occupation. Spouses may also use their MyCAA scholarship at an approved institution to help with the costs of national tests for course credits required for a degree approved under the MyCAA program. MyCAA doesn’t pay for course work in pursuit of a bachelor’s, master’s or doctorate degree.

Those eligible to register and apply for the scholarship include military spouses of active duty service members and spouses of National Guard and Reserve members on Title 10 orders.

As before, there’s an annual fiscal year cap of $2,000 per spouse for the assistance and it’s a one-time benefit for spouses. The financial assistance is also limited to the amount of funding DOD has available.

In its 15 years of existence, the MyCAA program has gone through various changes. When it was first offered in 2009, it paid up to $6,000 in assistance to spouses of service members in all ranks, with no limits on the types of education or fields.

It was so popular and so many spouses applied that DOD had to abruptly shut it down in 2010 when funding was depleted. When DOD officials restarted the program later in 2010, they lowered the dollar limit of assistance, and limited the eligibility to spouses of those in junior ranks of officer and enlisted. Gradually officials have expanded that eligibility pool.

Rand researchers have found that MyCAA has had a positive impact on spouses’ ability to find employment with higher pay.

Officials said DOD will track the use of the benefit and the course completion rate of the expanded population to decide whether to expand it to more spouses in the future.