State Guard or State Reserve: Another Way to Get Tuition Reimbursement

[Leherself]

This is really variable depending on what state you're in - since they're state forces, they're state funded, and what gets funded is all dependent on your individual state's budget. Also, only about 23 states even have state defense forces to start with.

In my state, the Alaska State Defense Force gets no tuition assistance, no pay unless activated by the state, and has had trouble in recent years getting any funding at all for much of anything (most of them have to pay out of pocket for their own uniforms and other equipment, even). Our former Governor disarmed them, and the recently ousted National Guard Adjutant General didn't have any interest in supporting or expanding their force.

Alaska also has a State Naval Militia, but it's only open to Navy and Marine Corps veterans.

The Civil Air Patrol is another para-military organization - they get more support around here both because they have an educational/youth focused program, and because they assist with search and rescue missions, and also provide small aircraft pilot training (huge things in these parts). As an aside, the CAP Cadet program is outstanding - think something like a highschool JROTC program, something like Eagle Scouts, only the kids are trained in legitimately useful things like flying aircraft, aerospace technology, mechanics, meteorology, etc. They can even earn advanced rank if they decide to join the Air Force when they become adults. I wish I'd known about it when I was a teenager! I highly recommend that people with teenagers (or soon to be teenagers) give it a look-see. It's a nice alternative to gendered scouting organizations, since boys and girls can both join.