Schwarzenegger renews push for National Guard tuition funding

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger renewed his push today for $3.6 million to help finance college education for the citizen soldiers of the California National Guard.

The governor called it “unconscionable” that California is the only state in the nation that does not provide tuition assistance to the men and women of the Guard.

“It’s a mark of shame on our great state,” Schwarzenegger said at a news conference in the Capitol rotunda. “It’s a terrible wrong that must be made right.”

A bill by state Sen. Dave Cogdill (R-Modesto) that would provide college assistance for the Guard is set for hearing Wednesday in the Senate Education Committee. Attempts in recent years by the governor and Republicans to win funding approval have been turned back amid the state’s ongoing fiscal travails.

Last August, Democrats in the Senate rejected a bill that would have launched the program. Foes argued that the Bush administration’s expanded deployment of California Guard members in Afghanistan and Iraq put the responsibility on the federal government to pay for expanded Guard benefits.

-- Eric Bailey