Revised GI Bill could help schooling for veterans
Four Senators are backing the bill which can make school more affordable
The bill’s benefits include cost of the most expensive public university and a monthly stipend for local housing expenses.
Heather Melanson
Monday, March 31st, 2008
After Bruce Archambault served a year in Iraq in the Army, he returned home to Leavenworth and picked up a few odds and ends jobs.
He delivered pizza, changed oil and picked up trash for the city. Right before the Fall 2005 semester began, Archambault saw a sign for school and decided he wanted a change.
“God, you know, I said, ‘That’d be really nice,’” Archambault said. “I’m tired of getting other people’s trash and maggots and human feces on me, basically, from when we go pick up the dumpsters at the water treatment plant. I don’t want to do that for the rest of my life. I think it’s time for me to go to school.’”
At the end of February, Senators Jim Webb, D-Va., John Warner, R-Va., Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., and Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., introduced to the Senate a revised version of the “Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act.” This bill is a modern version of the Montgomery GI Bill and could make school more affordable for veterans like Archambault.
The revision would provide veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan with 36 months of benefits, including the cost of the most expensive public university in the state. It would also give veterans a monthly stipend that covers local housing expenses, according to a press release on Sen. Webb’s Web site.
KU Assistant Registrar Joan Hahn helps veterans receive their benefits from the GI Bill and said extra money made available to veterans would be helpful.
The current GI Bill covers 36 months of school and veterans have to use the benefits within 10 years of leaving service.
“I know for a lot of students it still doesn’t cover the full amount of their tuition and fees, and then they still have to get a job or take out a student loan because they still don’t have enough money for them to live on,” Hahn said.
According to a press release from Sen. Webb’s Web site, the revised bill is meant to give veterans benefits comparable to the aid that World War II veterans received when the original GI Bill of 1944 was issued.
During the Spring 2004, a year after the Iraq war started, 268 veterans were receiving benefits from the GI Bill at the Lawrence campus, said Betty Childers, the registrar’s senior administrative representative and Veterans Affairs certifying official. This semester 231 veterans were registered, she said, which is about a 14 percent decrease. Recruiting operations officer for the KU Army ROTC department, Major Ted Culbertson, said the decrease in veteran registration might have been for different reasons, such as veterans had graduated, started a full-time career or they could currently be deployed.
Culbertson said soldiers would be encouraged to use their education benefits if the University could offer full-paid tuition and a monthly stipend because of this bill.
Tom Ferry, Saint Michael, Minn., junior, is a cadet in Army ROTC. Even though he hasn’t served in Iraq or Afghanistan, he receives aid from the GI Bill. Ferry joined the National Guard, and in order to receive benefits from the GI Bill, he had to complete basic training and advanced individual training.
“I think a lot of the reason people join the military is to gain their educational benefits. It’s a big part of why I did it,” Ferry said. “I wanted to come out of school debt free.”
According to the newspaper Army Times, the Bush administration is against this revised bill because it is worried soldiers would leave the military to use the improved benefits.
“You have the potential to give up your life for the nation,” said Army ROTC Cadet Fran Glass. “The least they can do is pay for your education.”
Fifty senators and 111 representatives are cosponsoring the bill, which is bill number S.22 in the state senate and H.R. 2702 in the state house of representatives.
Jeremy Stohs, a legislative aide for first district Congressman Jerry Moran, R-Kan., said Moran was not a sponsor of the bill, but that he was concerned with improving benefits for the National Guard and Reserves, because some had been deployed multiple times since Sept. 11.
Thomas Seay, press secretary for second district Congresswoman Nancy Boyda, D-Kan., said Boyda supported the principles of the bill, but wasn’t a sponsor of it.
Aside from the benefits the revised bill could offer, Archambault said he would also like to see an extension on the 36 months the bill covers. Archambault doesn’t have to take out loans because of benefits he receives from the bill.
“That’s kind of what allows me to go to school, is that extra money,” Archambault said. “Otherwise, I probably couldn’t afford it.”
If the bill passes, Archambault, who is a junior, probably won’t see the benefits that future veterans could gain. The Senate could vote on the bill this year, but it is still undetermined when specifically that vote will occur, according to the Army Times.
“I didn’t even start getting my GI Bill until the second semester I’d been in school, because it really wasn’t a big deal to me until I found out we get $700 a month,” Archambault said.
Now, whenever Archambault is enrolled in school, he receives his GI Bill benefits.
“That’s my mortgage payment every month,” he said.
— Edited by Matt Hirschfeld
Discussion
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Many soldiers return "home," to have to start over from scratch. I'm currently in the US Army, and I'm in Afghanistan. I will have been in the army for 6 years and spent 27 months overseas. I think soldiers have earned the "free ride," that so many conservatives have complained about. There's nothing free about it. It's been paid for. The government is willing to spend trillions of dollars for the war, but are afraid to pay more for the soldiers who have fought in it.
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