When President Franklin D Roosevelt signed the GI Bill in 1944 it provided a means for the 16 million veterans to afford a college education by paying for tuition, fees, books and even providing a living stipend while they were in school.  The “Servicemen’s Readjustment Act,” as it was also known, has been credited by several experts for transforming America into the nation we know today.

In his October 30, 2006 blog post “Nine Words,” for The Huffington Post (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/edward-humes/nine-words_b_32838.html), Edward Humes made the following argument:

It opened up the colleges (formerly elite bastions), raised suburbs out of bean fields (a nation of renters became a nation of homeowners), grew the middle class (from 1 in 10 before the war to 1 in 3 a decade after), and provided the medical, engineering and scientific prowess to conquer dread diseases, usher in the information age, and win the Cold War.

Such luminaries as Bob Dole, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, William Rehnquist, Warren Christopher, Gerald Ford, George H.W. Bush, and George McGovern, among many others, got their starts through the G.I. Bill, as did 14 Nobel Prize winners, two dozen Pulitzer Prize winners, 238,000 teachers, 91,000 scientists, 67,000 doctors, 450,000 engineers and a million assorted lawyers, nurses, businessmen, artists, actors, writers and pilots.

 With results like these, can anyone argue that the original GI Bill did not provide an incredible return on investment and change America for the better?  In fact a Congressional study completed in 1988 provided evidence that every dollar spent on the original GI Bill returned seven dollars to our national economy.

 

However, today the over 1.5 million service members returning from Iraq and Afghanistan face a completely different landscape.  The current educational benefits available for these veterans amount to a hill of beans as compared to what their predecessors received from the original GI Bill.  Today’s veterans pay a non-refundable contribution from their first paychecks and can receive up to $39,600 for their college education.  When you take into account all of the expenses associated with a college education, such as living expenses and books, our soldiers will be lucky if this pays for seventy percent of the costs associated with a four year degree at a public college or university.

 

Today, there are a number of organizations and government officials pushing for new legislation to improve the GI Bill so that it provides greater benefits to our troops and gives them a leg-up when they leave the service and reintegrate into civilian life.  Senator James Webb (VA) is sponsoring a bill, S 22, which would be available to any active or reserve service member who served at least three months of active duty since September 11, 2001.  The maximum benefits of the bill would pay an amount equal to the amount of tuition charged at a states most expensive public college or university.  Monthly payments for full-time students could jump as much as $800 from $1100 a month to $1900 a month.  Senator Webb’s bill would also pay a monthly living stipend.  Webb’s bill is receiving the support or organizations such as Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (www.iava.org) and the Student Veterans of America (www.studentveterans.org).

 

The short sighted critics of Webb’s bill fear that such improved benefits will hurt retention rates and encourage service members to leave the military after one tour.  What they fail to acknowledge is that an improved GI Bill will greatly improve the military’s ability to recruit and will provide long-term benefits to our country for generations to come.

 

It is time for our government to step up and invest in the future of our country again.  It is time for our veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan to have the same opportunities as the veterans of WWII, our “Greatest Generation”.