GI Bill Falling Short of College Tuition Costs: Pentagon Resists Boosts in Benefits

The government supports Veterans while on active duty but once they demand benefits for which many enlisted in the first place the Scrooge complex sets in as was evident in the earlier problems with medical services.

from the Boston Globe.Sennott, Charles M. 2008. "GI Bill Falling Short of College Tuition Costs: PentagonResists Boost In Benefits." Boston Globe (10February).<http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2008/02/10/gi_bill_falling_short_of_college_tuition_costs/>"The original GI Bill provided full tuition, housing, and living costs for some 8million veterans; for many, it was the engine of opportunity in the postwar years.But, in the mid 1980s, the program was scaled back to a peacetime program that paysa flat sum. Today the most a veteran can receive is approximately $9,600 a year forfour years -- no matter what college costs.""The Pentagon and White House have so far resisted a new GI Bill out of fear thattoo many will use it -- choosing to shed the uniform in favor of school and civilianlife. "The incentive to serve and leave," said Robert Clarke, assistant director ofaccessions policy at the Department of Defense, may "outweigh the incentive to havethem stay".""Paul Rieckhoff, an Iraq war veteran and director of the Iraq and AfghanistanVeterans of America, an organization based in New York, said that enhancing the GIBill is a solid investment in the country's future. One study he cites suggests thatevery dollar spent on the original GI Bill created a seven-fold return for theeconomy. "Funding the GI Bill as Senator Webb proposes it for one year would costthis country what it spends in Iraq in 36 hours," he said.""Beyond the financial struggle is a daunting bureaucratic obstacle course that canconfound veterans and sometimes steer them away from the benefit altogether. Thatstruggle starts with the requirement that all participants buy into the program witha $1,200 upfront payment. William Bardenwerper, an Army veteran of Iraq with anundergraduate degree from Princeton University, described a six-month odyssey ofpaperwork in trying to navigate the current GI Bill. He kept a detailed log of hisfrustrating, and to-date fruitless, effort to access his benefits for graduateschool. "Not to sound elitist," said Bardenwerper, "but if a 31-year-old Princetongrad has a hard time deciphering what he is entitled to, then I have no idea how a21-year-old armed only with a GED could navigate this system.""Clarke, of the Department of Defense, said it is simply off-base to compare whatwas offered to World War II veterans to the situation today. There was no concernabout retention rates back then, he said; rapid demobilization was the order of theday."