After spending years of their lives in war zones, veterans often return home with hopes of a bright future and experiences darker than most college students can imagine. Having risked life and limb far abroad, veterans deserve the chance to get a high-quality education, time to focus on studies rather than finances and the means to establish themselves in a civilian career.
For Massachusetts veterans, federal funds barely cover the cost of public college education at the University of Massachusetts. Fall 2007 tuition and fees at the Boston campus ring in at $4,418. Effective Oct. 1, 2007, veterans are eligible for $1,101 each month for education costs, from the Montgomery GI Bill — almost enough to cover the four months of the first semester. However, without other support to supplement work wages, veterans are hard pressed to keep up with living costs and full-time classes.
The bill, passed in 1984, was meant to emulate the 1944 legislation that put 7.8 million World War II veterans through college or other educational programs. President Franklin Roosevelt’s legislation paid tuition for discharged servicemen and provided options for monthly living allowances and unemployment benefits for up to one year. In short, the 1944 bill gave veterans a chance to focus on education and skill development. It also actually covered tuition costs.
In 1945, a University of Pennsylvania undergraduate education cost $420. The $500 veterans received to cover education costs could buy a degree from one of the country’s premier colleges. Today, UPenn tuition and fees total $35,916 — more than three times the educational benefit conferred by the Montgomery GI Bill.
Following World War II, the government realized education is investment. Putting veterans through college isn’t charity. It is an advance payment for a better educated and more economically stable generation. It is also a meaningful gesture of appreciation to those who halted their career plans and education to serve the United States.
For all veterans, increased flexibility in tuition funding is necessary. While 36 months of educational benefits may be enough to cover four years of nine-month academic years, the government should realize soldiers, who left school for several years, may need an extra semester of funding to finish school, as do many students who never served in the armed forces. Special attention should be paid to National Guard members who only qualify for federal education benefits when they are enlisted in the Guard. With Guard forces being transferred to active duty in Iraq, educations can too easily be interrupted, and soldiers need better options for completing their education.
In addition to the commonwealth’s legislative efforts, the federal government must find a better way to promise a full education to those who spend years furthering its security.