Photo by Amy Simon
Will Bratton, a fifth semester student at UT, is a GI Bill beneficiary.

This Is The Way We Go To School

By Samantha Iyer
AUSTIN – For marine reservist and Texas A&M University psychology student Jason Deep, the benefits of the current GI Bill are inadequate. He thought he could count on the GI Bill for his education, but unfortunately for him, reservists—as compared to active duty military personnel—receive funding at a sharply reduced rate: $1,100 a month versus $600. And with recent tuition hikes inflating the cost of higher education, Deep, like other reservists enrolled in schools across America, is finding himself hard pressed to pay for his shot at a degree.

The historical GI Bill of Rights, or the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, offered veterans a year of unemployment benefits, loan opportunities, and reimbursement for a college education. When the World War II GI Bill program formally ended in 1956, an estimated 7.8 million veterans had benefited to some degree. According to information posted on the Department of Veteran Affairs Web site, the bill contributed more to the welfare of veterans and their families, and to the growth of the nation’s economy, than any other program in history. The cumulative effects of the bill not only helped to resurrect the economy, but also helped returning veterans reintegrate into civilian life.

Today’s bill is designed to combat what remain serious problems for returning soldiers: joblessness and poverty. The VA reported in 2007 that 18 percent of the veterans seeking jobs within one to three years of discharge were unemployed, and 25 percent of those who actually founds jobs earned less than $21,840 a year.

Many veterans consider their civilian options limited. A 2007 survey in the veterans’ section of Monster.com, an online employment Web site, stated that 81 percent of discharged veterans did not “feel fully prepared for the process of entering the job market.” Seventy-one percent were unsure how to negotiate salary and benefits, and 76 percent reported “an inability to effectively translate their military skills into civilian terms.” Thus, with few well-paying jobs available for unskilled servicemen and symptomatic uncertainty regarding how to cope, many veterans turn to education, with the GI Bill to help pay for it.

Revamped by Mississippi Congressman Gillespie V Montgomery in 1984, the modern incarnation of the bill, or the Montgomery GI Bill, falls well short of the accomplishments linked to its history and its name. The bill remains an education benefit earned only by Active Duty, Selected Reserve and National Guard service members, helping them cover costs associated with getting an education, which can include flight training, on-the-job training and certification programs. It is administered based on a soldier’s eligibility and duty status and distributes money intended for tuition and college expenses directly to the student. “It provides 36 months of education benefits that need to be utilized within 10 years upon returning from combat,” said Will Bratton, who returned stateside this January following a four-year stint as a sergeant in the Army’s Judge Advocate General’s office in Germany. Bratton is in his third year at the University of Texas at Austin.

And while none would do away with the help today’s bill provides, almost all veterans think yet another revamping is in order.

“The biggest restriction of the bill is that members of the Reserves and National Guard do not get full benefits, despite the fact that they are often deployed into a hostile combat zone,” Deep said. Though at present the GI Bill allots full-time student veterans about $1,100 a month for tuition, fees, books, and living expenses, for a period of up to 36 months, the combined largesse of these numbers can seem greater than it is. For the 2007 financial year, the state of Texas spent just over $360,000 on the education and training of more than one and a half million veterans eligible for coverage under the GI Bill.

This eligibility is not without caveats. A veteran must have been discharged “under honorable conditions” and must have graduated from high school. And a solider whose resume lists the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps need not apply. Sam Denton, a National Guardsman who served as an Army officer in Iraq, was denied GI Bill benefits because the state paid his tuition as part of his ROTC scholarship during his pre-Iraq undergraduate study. Fortunately for Denton, and others in similar situations, he has options. Now enrolled in the UT School of Law, Denton is able to afford the tuition by virtue of the Hazelwood Act or, as it’s also known, the Hazelwood Exemption. The act exempts qualified Texas veterans, as well as the children of certain deceased veterans, from tuition and selected fees at public colleges and universities in the state. Applicants must be legal residents of Texas at the time they entered the military in order to avoid having to tackle full tuition at state colleges.

According to Denton, the Hazelwood Exemption “allows me to get 150 hours of free education at a state school. And since I go to law school, it works well for me since the tuition is very high.” Denton is lucky to be a Texan. The exemption doesn’t apply to all states, and many prospective student-veterans with ROTC backgrounds are short-changed as a result. The California Veterans Education Opportunities Partnership grants veteran Californians some money for in-state tuition, but only some.

Nearly 9,000 Texans were able to attend state schools under the Hazelwood Exemption in 2005, according to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.

Despite potential tuition exemptions and the root benefits the bill provides, some veterans have been vocal about their sum dissatisfaction. Others are less critical. “I’ll take anything!” said Bratton. “Surely some aid is better than no aid at all!”

And while some feel that Reservists and National Guardsmen should be able to avail themselves of the bill equally, others appreciate the disparity. “The difference is understandable because their service obligations are different,” said Laurence Duaine, a student at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at UT. Like Denton, Duaine was also in the ROTC and is covered by the Hazelwood Act.

The federal government, Duaine said, should bring out a more unified bill or make education free for all combat veterans regardless of their status. “It would cost the government a lot more, but this would be fair and equate soldiers based on their combat history,” he said.

The Bush administration recently endorsed a House bill that would improve the Montgomery GI Bill education benefits, but it is not likely to be passed during his tenure. This so-called “21st Century GI Bill” proposes a new $500 stipend per month to help cover increased college living expenses, on top of the current $1,100. It is not yet known whether there will be improved benefits for reservists, as the details of this potential bill have not been opened to the public.

If the bill isn’t passed while President Bush is in office, which seems likely, the upcoming elections may play a major role in the outcome of the “21st Century GI Bill.” As veterans continue to return from conflicts overseas, schools and employment agencies will face an increasing number of them struggling to adjust to the dollars-and-cents realities of civilian life. Without a robust GI Bill to help them, readjustment will be that much harder.