GI Bill increase stalled - ask McCain and Bush
The GI Bill paid for my undergraduate education, and for that I am grateful. But the problem is that my university - the University of Cincinnati - is among the least expensive in the country, and if I had attended a more costly school, the GI Bill would not have covered it.
And I was paying in-state tuition, which made my university even less costly.
The GI Bill currently pays about $1000 per month, for up to 36 months. (Because summers are not included, that works out to four years.)
Vietnam veteran and Virginia Senator Jim Webb wants to greatly increase the money available to military veterans. Colin Powell and others support the bill. But a number of people, including Senator John McCain and President George W. Bush, are opposed. A headline on ABC news sums it up: "If you try to send the troops to college, they just might go."
In essence, McCain and others are worried that veterans thinking about college will be less likely to re-enlist.
This is a valid concern. Even though the military is meeting its "goals" with recruiting, as certain camps are eager to report, (1) where do the goals come from?, and (2) standards are being lowered to recruit more soldiers and Marines. Not to mention the stop-loss policy, which can prohibit certain personnel from leaving when their contract ends.
Our men and women in uniform are rewarded pretty well for their service. I was recently on my old base and noticed all the brand-new cars with shiny rims, etc. But the GI Bill is not functioning as it originally was intended to.
It was a revolutionary idea, started after WWII, to help returning vets go to school. The GI Bill was responsible for a great deal of the postwar growth in this country. Now it needs to be modernized, and enable vets to go to better colleges and universities.
How could we fund the enlarged program? Well, a certain war of choice is costing taxpayers $2 billion per week...
And I was paying in-state tuition, which made my university even less costly.
The GI Bill currently pays about $1000 per month, for up to 36 months. (Because summers are not included, that works out to four years.)
Vietnam veteran and Virginia Senator Jim Webb wants to greatly increase the money available to military veterans. Colin Powell and others support the bill. But a number of people, including Senator John McCain and President George W. Bush, are opposed. A headline on ABC news sums it up: "If you try to send the troops to college, they just might go."
In essence, McCain and others are worried that veterans thinking about college will be less likely to re-enlist.
This is a valid concern. Even though the military is meeting its "goals" with recruiting, as certain camps are eager to report, (1) where do the goals come from?, and (2) standards are being lowered to recruit more soldiers and Marines. Not to mention the stop-loss policy, which can prohibit certain personnel from leaving when their contract ends.
Our men and women in uniform are rewarded pretty well for their service. I was recently on my old base and noticed all the brand-new cars with shiny rims, etc. But the GI Bill is not functioning as it originally was intended to.
It was a revolutionary idea, started after WWII, to help returning vets go to school. The GI Bill was responsible for a great deal of the postwar growth in this country. Now it needs to be modernized, and enable vets to go to better colleges and universities.
How could we fund the enlarged program? Well, a certain war of choice is costing taxpayers $2 billion per week...
posted by bp at
11:46 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home