VaHigherEd.com

We here at VaHigherEd.com are intrigued by the growing national dialogue about the need for and possibility of a new GI Bill.  No one should be surprised by the conversation.  After all, the original GI Bill carried significant benefits for the entire nation.

According to a 1986 Congressional Research Office study, each dollar invested in the World War II GI Bill yielded $5 to $12 in tax revenues, the result of increased taxes paid by veterans who achieved higher incomes made possible by a college education.

That comes from this story published on the CBS News website.  The article contends that not only are the current higher education benefits military members receive inadequate, but the men and women in uniform are also misled about them.

The Pentagon sells an educational dream to recruits. In addition to promising tens of thousands of dollars for a service member’s college education, recruiters promise future soldiers that they’ll be able to “attend college anywhere they are based and even in the combat zone through Internet classes offered from the college they are enrolled in.”

But most Iraq War veterans say that’s a promise that exists only on paper.

It seems this topic isn’t going away any time soon.

Posted by Jeff Kraus