WASHINGTON — Thursday marks the four-year anniversary of the Post-9/11 GI Bill, which provides veterans with money for college tuition, housing and textbooks.
Although the Department of Veterans Affairs has helped nearly 1 million veterans, military service members and their families pursue their education, some have struggled to qualify for in-state tuition, forcing them to pay thousands of dollars more.
Thirty-two states do not grant in-state tuition to veterans without permanent residency, according to Student Veterans of America data. What constitutes permanent residency varies from state-to-state, but some universities have stepped outside state laws to voluntarily offer veterans in-state tuition.
The intent of the Post-9/11 GI Bill is to fully cover in-state tuition for veterans and active-duty service members, but that is not how it has played out, said Ryan Gallucci, deputy legislative director at the Veterans of Foreign Wars.
“This is a massive inequity because vets don’t choose their duty stations,” said Gallucci, explaining the limitations veterans have in claiming permanent residency after active service.
Anyone with at least 90 days of total service after September 10, 2001 qualifies for the Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits. Since 2009 the VA has issued approximately $30 billion in grants for this program.
Through the Post-9/11 GI Bill, Navy Veteran Rob Breakiron was able to obtain two masters’ degrees at Loyola University in Chicago.
“For three years I was allowed to attend school full-time—no way would I have been able to do that without this bill,” said Breakiron who had a family to care for when he left the service.
The burden of not working while attending school full-time would have been a cost his family could not afford on their own, Breakiron said.
The law provides grants set at the highest in-state tuition rate across the board, leaving student veterans with the difference if they attend a costlier private school or a state-supported university in a state where they cannot claim residency. By not qualifying for in-state tuition, some veterans are forced to pay thousands of dollars out of pocket.
In the past year, nine states have extended in-state tuition to all veterans and about a dozen have legislation pending, according to Michael Dakduk, executive director at Student Veterans of America. On Capitol Hill, legislation on this issue has passed committees in both the House and the Senate, and is expected to be approved by the end of the year, Dakduk said.
Dakduk said he prefers the House bill because it guarantees in-state tuition to all veterans, regardless of their residency status. The Senate measure does the same, but only allots for a three-year window of usage after leaving service.
Under the Post-9/11 GI Bill, veterans can also qualify for the Yellow Ribbon Program, which helps them close any financial gap. The VA has partnered with thousands of schools, guaranteeing to match scholarships each particular school is willing to offer.
Rob Breakiron took advantage of the Yellow Ribbon Program, which allowed him to afford an expensive private university for three years.
Providing veterans with an education is not only essential to each individual but also to our nation as a whole, said Gallucci.
“For every dollar originally spent on this bill, $3 are returned to the economy,” he said.
According to a 2010 Georgetown University study, 60 percent of job openings by 2018 will require a higher education degree. Therefore, a college education is crucial for these vets to acquire the skills and training necessary for finding a career after their service, Gallucci said.
Although billions of dollars are being invested in veterans’ educations, the VA has yet to track outcomes for these student veterans.
Without such data, it is difficult to gauge the real return on the taxpayers’ investment, said Melissa Emrey-Arras, director of education at the U.S. Government Accountability Office.
Currently, Student Veterans of America is tracking the veterans’ retention rates, graduation rates and time elapsed to obtain degrees. Preliminary results will be available by the end of the year, Dakduk said.
The Post-9/11 GI Bill is offering more opportunities than the 1944 GI Bill which helped World War II vets afford college, said Dakduk. Even so, the VA does not always provide the free in-state ride the law intended to deliver.
“The greatest misconception of the Post-9/11 GI Bill is that it is all encompassing—but that is far from the truth,” he said.