The University of New Mexico stopped accepting provisional Army tuition payments for its students last month after the service fell behind on paying its bills to the university.
Students there who were using Army scholarships were told by the university to pay out of pocket or drop out. The Army had eight outstanding invoices but has since paid all those bills after a Military.com inquiry. A spokesperson with the university did not return a request for comment.
It’s the most recent example in nearly three years of issues with Army IgnitED, the service’s tuition assistance program. But the Army now says the platform is being improved and the bugs that have put students and schools in a bind are starting to disappear. About 250 of beneficiaries who paid out of pocket since 2021 have yet to be reimbursed by the Army.
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The program has been plagued with technical glitches stretching back to 2021 when the online service launched as a successor to GoArmyEd. Soldiers and other beneficiaries could not use their benefits, schools were not getting paid, and some beneficiaries were either putting their education on hold or paying out of pocket, sparking outrage across the rank and file and raising concerns in Congress.
Education benefits are a critical recruiting and retention tool in the force. Those entitlements are becoming even more relevant as…
