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  The Nation's #1 Independent Veterans Web Site Click here to make VA Watchdog dot Org your homepage VA NEWS FLASH from Larry Scott at VA Watchdog dot Org -- 06-09-2008 |
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The Nation's #1 Independent Veterans Web Site Click here to make VA Watchdog dot Org your homepage VA NEWS FLASH from Larry Scott at VA Watchdog dot Org -- 06-09-2008 |
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CAMPUS -- "The whole purpose of the G.I. Bill isn't just to get people into college, it's to give people a chance to catch up to where they would have been."
For more about the G.I. Bill, use the VA Watchdog
search engine...click here... Story here...
http://ap.google.com/arti Story below:
------------------------- Colleges hope new GI
bill will lure veterans to campus
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Those who qualify would have more
freedom to choose distinctive colleges like Marlboro, rather than being
limited by finances to the community, for-profit and regional public
colleges where most troops have typically used their GI benefits.
"It's not just some other school where you are force-fed knowledge in a
class with 500 people," Bristol wrote of Marlboro, in an e-mail from
Morocco, where he is traveling and doing research this summer. "That might
work out for some, but for me it was a waste of time."
The bills, expected to pass both houses of Congress by veto-proof
majorities early next week, make a range of changes affecting
cost-of-living allowances, the time veterans have to use benefits, and
other aspects of the complex web of veterans' education benefits.
But the change that has gotten the most attention is that the government
would cover full tuition for veterans at their state's most expensive
public college.
For students hoping to attend private institutions like Marlboro, the
government would provide the cost of the priciest public university plus a
dollar-for-dollar match of aid the colleges provide to help make up the
difference.
Bristol says liberal arts colleges like Marlboro could particularly
benefit from having more veterans because they "rely so much on their
students and what they bring to the table."
The added benefits will cost an estimated $52 billion over 10 years.
President Bush and some lawmakers have supported an alternative
measure,
arguing the current bill is so generous it will discourage re-enlistment.
Late this week, however, the White House signaled Bush might sign the
bill, but now wanted to add even more education benefits for spouses and
children — a development veterans advocates greeted with stunned delight.
After first balking at the cost, lawmakers were persuaded that allowing
GIs to attend whatever colleges are best for them was worth it.
"Veterans should be able to dream the same dreams that other students
have," said Dartmouth College president James Wright, a veteran himself,
who lobbied lawmakers to include the private college provision.
The original 1944 GI bill helped educate nearly 8 million World War II
veterans, flooding campuses ranging from land-grant state schools to the
Ivy League. Its impact, transforming American higher education and society
itself, echoes to this day.
But veterans' advocates argue the benefits haven't kept pace with tuition
increases, relegating veterans to a second-class educational experience.
They have cited figures showing 90 percent of veterans attend community
college at some point, compared to 38 percent of people overall.
Partly, that reflects many veterans aren't ready for four-year college
work, but financial issues certainly play a role, too.
"We should be able to give people the opportunity to choose what's best
for them," said Patrick Campbell, legislative director for Iraq and
Afghanistan Veterans of America. "The whole purpose of the GI Bill isn't
just to get people into college, it's to give people a chance to catch up
to where they would have been."
Certainly, many using the GI bill will continue to follow the same paths
to community colleges and perhaps four-year public universities.
But some, at least, will have a better chance of attending private
colleges which — though not necessarily better — often have distinctive
cultures that can be beneficial when the fit is right. Marlboro is among
the more unusual such places, focusing on liberal arts but giving students
wide leeway to create their own, often interdisciplinary, intellectual
courses of study.
President Ellen McCulloch-Lovell says the school's culture was crafted by
its early GI students, who wanted to be treated as colleagues of their
teachers.
The veteran population, however, nearly disappeared because of costs and
the sense among many vets that they needed preprofessional training more
than a liberal arts degree.
Now the school president would love to get some veterans back.
"I think we're better as an intellectual community when we have people of
a wider array of ages and experiences," she said.
A number of colleges are likely to step up with targeted aid for veterans
to cover the remaining gap from the GI bill. Pace University in New York
is among the schools already actively recruiting veterans, offering a
50-percent tuition break for Afghanistan and Iraq veterans and advertising
in veterans' publications and Web sites.
Many veterans, Bristol said, don't consider colleges like Marlboro for
cultural reasons and for lack of familiarity. Without doing extra
research, he says, he likely would have ended up at his home-state
University of Florida.
"I knew I wanted something more," said Bristol, who is triple-majoring in
history, anthropology and languages. "I liked the tradition (of Marlboro's
being founded by veterans) and figured there couldn't be many of us there
anymore because of A) the price, and B) it seemed pretty full of hippies,
which it kind of is."
But money is the main reason he says most fellow veterans don't attend
colleges like Marlboro.
The average list price for tuition and fees for a private four-year
college is $23,712, though accounting for financial aid the average net
cost is $14,400.
Marlboro's tuition and expenses run $41,220 annually, though 80 percent of
students receive financial aid. The current GI benefit is $1,101 per month
for up to 36 months for qualifying active-duty personnel and $317 per
month for Reservists.
"In some ways, for better or worse, our life experience works against us,"
Bristol said. "Most high school students don't realize what exactly debt
is; so they are willing to (acquire) tons of it. We, on the other hand,
have generally had car loans, bills, and so the idea of going $80,000 in
debt for a private education is scary."
"Because of my language (skills) I could get a good, extremely
well-compensated job in Iraq which is allowing me to go to school nearly
debt-free," he said.
"But not every veteran has that opportunity."
-------------------------
posted by Larry
Scott
Founder and Editor
VA Watchdog dot Org
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