Needed: New GI Bill

Current education benefits program stiffs veterans

Veterans returning from the U.S. wars in Afghanistan and Iraq -- many injured either physically or psychologically -- shouldn't have to struggle to make ends meet while attending school on the GI Bill. But they are.

Consider Sgt. Todd Bowers. When he was activated for his second deployment to Iraq, he had to withdraw from classes at George Washington University, racking up an extra semester's debt without receiving credit for his coursework. In Iraq he was wounded by sniper fire.

He was awarded the Purple Heart and a Navy Commendation Medal for valor. But when Sgt. Bowers returned home, he found credit collectors, not well wishers. "The creditors were more ruthless than the insurgents," he said. With insufficient GI benefits and unable to keep up his student loan payments, he had to leave school.

This is the reality for many returning veterans. The original GI Bill paid tuition, room and board and a stipend for all World War II veterans. It helped 7.8 million service members resume their lives. The current GI Bill, rejiggered in 1984, barely keeps beneficiaries afloat. Estimated to cover less than half the costs of attending college, it needs a major overhaul.

But some members of Congress want to nickel-and-dime veterans on this issue. They say the costs to provide those benefits are too high, and that the benefits could be a disincentive for service people to re-enlist.

You read that right. Some people want to low-ball veterans' GI Bill benefits so they'll be forced to re-up because they need the money. It sounds slimy and it is. GI Bill benefits should be benefits. Tying the GI Bill to re-enlistment feels like a bait and switch, not to mention coercion.

As for costs, even if a World War II-style GI Bill were to double the current $1.6 billion cost (about the estimate for the more generous bill), it would be a fraction of the spending on the war on terror. Additionally, an overhauled GI Bill would provide more stimulus to the economy. It also would help recruitment "substantially," according to a 2000 RAND study. That boost would be "far in excess of what might be lost through decreased retention," the study said.

The current GI Bill doesn't meet today's needs. Thousands of Iraq and Afghanistan combat veterans are members of the Guard and Reserves who don't have fair access to GI Bill benefits. Current benefits also don't adequately recognize adult and continuing education programs offered at today's colleges and universities. A grateful nation should provide veterans these benefits.

June 22 will mark the 62nd anniversary of the signing of the GI Bill of Rights by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Congress and President Bush should not let this anniversary pass without a new GI Bill that provides for today's veterans in the manner this country provided in 1946.

As President Roosevelt said then: This bill "gives emphatic notice to the men and women in our armed forces that the American people do not intend to let them down." That's only fair. Those veterans didn't let us down.