ST. PAUL, Minn.
Brisa Dorff is 5 years old and won’t start kindergarten until this fall, but if she stays in Minnesota her college tuition should be covered.
Dorff’s father, Chief Warrant Officer Patrick Dorff, died two years ago when his helicopter crashed during a rescue mission in Iraq. A World War II-era law on Minnesota’s books entitles children of fallen soldiers to free tuition at public universities.
“To me that’s a godsend, just knowing that even part of my daughter’s education is paid for,” said Brisa’s mother, Jamie. “It’s already stressful enough having to worry about my 5-year-old now and having to worry 13 years down the road on top of that.”
From New England to the mountain West, state leaders and university officials are reviewing decades-old “war orphan” policies and, in some cases, freshening them to ensure that children who lose a parent in Iraq or Afghanistan are not shut out.
A revised law covering the dependents of soldiers killed since the Sept. 11 attacks won approval in Iowa last week. The same debate is under way in Missouri. Wyoming, New Hampshire and South Dakota all recently updated their laws in different ways.
On Thursday, regents at the University of Minnesota will consider a resolution declaring the school’s intention to provide the tuition waivers beginning with the fall semester. In the 2005-06 school year, such a waiver would have spared a student $7,140 in tuition.
