I have a great friend who is a veteran. We both ETS from the Army in 1991. I was able to go right to college. He had to help out his family and get a job as his father was very ill. Long story short, he got a job, got married, and was unable to get to school within the 10 years allowed under the GI Bill. He served his time, paid his money $1200 at the time, and now he has nothing to show. Shouldn't this be a lifetime award for all veterans? What does everyone else think? By the way thanks to all of you for your service to our country and your tremendous sacrifice.
I'd love to see something like that. I was only able to use about 40% of my benefits, because of complete incompetence on my schools part. It took over a year before they got the paperwork straight, and they consistently screwed up the paperwork semester after semester, resulting in numerous delays. The only issue "I could see arising from this is how will it be funded? When I used the GI bill in the early 90's I contributed $1200 in exchange for approx 16.5K in benefits, nowadays I understand that same $1200 gets you north of 30K in benefits! Sure would be great! -Jeff
I've a similar story rxjeff...'cept I used about 70% to get my B.S. degree and always considered I would put the rest toward getting my Masters degree, or toward law school. Never got to it, my job paid fairly well and now that it's past 10 years, the expense is prohibitive... that's the excuse I'm using anyway.
I think everyone who serves should get the benefit for a lifetime without contributing the money. When I was 18 joining the navy, alot of people I was with during the processing got ripped off. The guy was talking so fast, yelling, we were confused and didn't think about the consequences. A few of us denied the 100 dollar allottment and can never get the GI bill again. I since joined the coast guard thinking I'd have a second chance to get the GI bill. Wrong- I found out you only get one chance in your life to accept it or deny it forever.
The only negative in this would be the added expense for the new troops entering service. The GI Bill is built to only payout to a certain percentage of the population, similar to Social Security. If it is utilized more, then the cost of the program will go up. If that happens, someone has to pay for it.
I agree that it should be good for a lifetime, even if that means the initial cost to the member is $2k.
Another big problem is that most state schools now charge fees which exceed tuition, gives the politicians cover, they can claim that they never raised tuition. They let the administrators do whatever they want with the fees.
I think GI Bill should be lifetime for retirees, twenty years for completing two enlistments or more, and remain at ten years for six years or less service.
Originally posted by RWLucas: I think GI Bill should be lifetime for retirees, twenty years for completing two enlistments or more, and remain at ten years for six years or less service.
The tiered eligibility actually sounds like a pretty good idea. Why not take an hour drafting a letter to the appropriate persons in Congress and invest a couple dollars worth of stamps in sharing that suggestion?
