VETERANS ROUNDTABLE on HIGHER EDUCATION:
WRITTEN STATEMENT OF KIRK MOSS
Army Veteran; Resident of Celina, TX
U.S. Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs Hearing Room
December 8, 2025
Good afternoon. My name is Kirk Moss, and I am an Army veteran. Following my service, I became aware of the Veteran Rapid Retraining Assistance Program and decided to use that benefit to earn some IT certifications. I enrolled at Future Tech Career Institute, a school approved by the VA to receive this education benefit, in late 2021.
The problems really picked up in February of 2022. I was moved out of one class section into another section taught by a different teacher, and I reached out to my academic advisor to request to be placed back in the section with the first instructor. I had been out of school for many years before coming to Future Tech, and I have a learning disability, so I strongly preferred to remain in the class with the teacher I already knew, whose class I had just succeeded in. My advisor started to ignore my messages, wouldn’t meet with me, and wouldn’t work with me on a solution. When I said that I would have to reconsider the school and wouldn’t review it highly, he became irate.
Just a few days later, students learned that the VA had pulled its approval of Future Tech and would no longer be funding the school. The school offered student veterans the opportunity to continue on scholarship, but without a housing allowance, but I didn’t get the same offer. I was blocked from my email, and staff stopped responding to me. I felt that they retaliated against me for raising concerns and lodging a complaint.
I had an awful experience with Future Tech, and so did many other student veterans who were attending when the school lost funding. I wasted time and benefits and was not provided the opportunity to finish the program or earn certifications. We should not allow schools to take advantage of veterans for their own gain. Schools that get access to federal money should be vetted to make sure that they will provide a worthwhile experience to their students.
Thanks for listening to me, and I hope you will remember stories like ours and support rules that will help veterans.
Statement_Kirk Moss