“We have a moral responsibility to
provide educational opportunities to
the young men and women who have
selflessly served their country since
the attacks of September 11, 2001.”
—Jerome Kohlberg
Facts About Veterans’ Education
Toward the end of World War II, this nation made a solemn promise to our troops – the least we can do to repay your service to America is to cover the cost of college. This promise helped an entire generation go to colleges and universities, helping them in the job market, and lent itself to creating the strong middle class we have even today.
Today, we have defaulted on that promise.
We charge our troops $1200 just to be eligible for education benefits. In 1988, Congress voted to require our servicemembers to pay a $1,200 non-refundable fee, in order to receive money for college at a later date. That amounts to a “combat tax” for those who serve this nation in uniform.
Education benefits don’t even cover half the cost of most colleges. The maximum yearly benefit available through the current GI Bill (to active duty veterans) is $9,675 or $38,700 over 4 years. That’s about half of what it costs to go to a public college as an in-state student, a little more than one-third the cost for an out-of-state student, and less than a third of the cost of a private institution.
Most enlisted men and women do not have a college degree. Because so many men and women enlist directly after high school, or soon thereafter, ninety percent of enlisted personnel do not have a bachelor’s degree or higher. Think about it. With 375,000 troops separating from the service each year, we are sending them out to a job market without the higher education that can give them a leg-up. Unlike post-World War II, we’re not helping our veterans compete, we’re leaving them to figure it out on their own.