WASHINGTON
Just a few months after securing a historic, multibillion-dollar increase in veterans educational benefits, some veterans groups may ask Congress to wipe out part of what they gained.
The Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America and the American Legion are among groups considering asking lawmakers to place a cap - $13,000 per year has been suggested by the IAVA - on tuition aid for veterans. That's far less than would be available in many states under a new GI bill for post-9/11 troops but is enough to cover virtually all public college costs, advocates of the limit say.
The cap would make the new benefit program easier for veterans to understand and simpler for the Department of Veterans Affairs to run, said Patrick Campbell, the IAVA's legislative counsel. The law passed last fall creates more than 315,000 possible combinations of benefits, Campbell argues in a message posted on the group's Web site.
He's particularly concerned that the new law creates wide variances in the aid available to vets in different states.
"It's a matter of fairness," he said. "I don't know how you can justify giving one state so little and another so much."
The disparity is the latest complication to arise in what will be the largest military benefit increase since the end of World War II.
"I think at this point, everyone's a little overwhelmed," said Rep. John Boozman, an Arkansas Republican who serves on the House subcommittee overseeing veterans education programs.
Boozman is part of a bipartisan group of lawmakers who are looking at possible technical changes to the law, including extending benefits to more than 40,000 National Guardsmen who work full time for state guards but have not been called into federal service.
The new law is the signature initiative of Virginia Sen. Jim Webb, a freshman Democrat and former Navy secretary who overcame the opposition of the Bush administration to get it passed. It requires the Department of Veterans Affairs to pay each eligible veteran's tuition and fees, up to the maximum charge at the most expensive public college in the state where the vet enrolls.
The law also gives vets $1,000 each year for books and materials and a housing allowance during the school year equal to that provided to troops on active duty.
Veterans who served before the 9/11 attacks will continue to receive aid under the Montgomery GI Bill. Congress beefed up that program last year, but its benefits often fall thousands of dollars short of actual college costs.
The VA expects that as many as 100,000 more veterans will seek college aid - about 400,000 now receive it. The agency estimates the 10-year cost of the new program at $78 billion.
With the law set to take effect Aug. 1, the VA has asked college officials in each state to provide data on their highest in-state tuition and fees. Because some schools base those charges in part on the programs a student chooses, the most expensive rate may be paid by only a handful of students.
Some of the maximums, which the VA posted on its Web site this month, are eye-popping.
Although the VA says the data are tentative, Texas, the most expensive state, quoted a maximum of $1,333 per credit hour in tuition and $12,130 per semester in fees. For a student carrying an average course load - 15 credit hours per semester - that would translate into annual aid of up to $64,250.
By contrast, in Wyoming, the cheapest state according to the VA figures, a vet's maximum annual tuition aid would total just $3,621.
The Texas maximums are a combination of charges from two different schools and so represent total costs that no single student could incur, said Connie Jacksits, director of veterans education for the Texas Veterans Commission.
Texas does not routinely charge tuition by the credit hour, Jacksits added, and the cost per hour decreases as a student enrolls for additional hours. For full-time students, the highest tuition in Texas is $4,959 per semester, she said.
Such complexities have made it difficult for the VA to compute the maximum aid it will provide, said Keith Wilson, the agency's director of education services. If an individual veteran's actual costs are less than the maximum aid, the VA will pay only the actual costs.
For vets attending school in Virginia, the VA figures indicate the maximum aid per year would be just over $20,000. The IAVA said its research indicates that Virginia's highest in-state tuition is the $9,473 paid by students at Virginia Military Institute.
In-state students at Old Dominion University and Norfolk State University, the four-year state colleges in South Hampton Roads, pay less than $7,000 in tuition and fees, so their costs would be fully covered under both the law passed last year and the IAVA proposal.
Whatever limits are ultimately set, reports of the bill's enhanced benefits have caught veterans' attention, said VA, college and military officials.
"We are getting a lot of questions," said Resty Orduna, a retired Navy personnel specialist who counsels other vets at Tidewater Community College's Veteran Affairs office and attends TCC classes himself on the Montgomery GI Bill.
Orduna expects to shift to the new benefit plan this summer, an option available to him because part of his service came after the Sept. 11 attacks. He said he's particularly pleased that the VA will make his tuition payments directly; under the Montgomery Bill he pays those costs and uses a monthly benefit check to gradually reimburse himself.
Other vets, like Pete Tapyrik of Virginia Beach, are looking to share part of their benefit with their children, an option provided by the new law. After 21 years in the Air Force, working with munitions and then in intelligence, Tapyrik is pointing toward a new career as a chef. He's attending TCC now on the Montgomery Bill and will save benefits under the new law for his 10-year-old daughter.
So far, though, he said he hasn't been able to find out how much that will total. Under the new law, it depends on how much aid a veteran already has received and his or her length of service.
More than 400 military and college counselors peppered the VA's Wilson with questions about such intricacies of the new law during a two-hour session earlier this month at ODU.
Wilson was quick to admit he didn't have all the answers, but insisted the VA will work through them in time to meet the August deadline.
The agency has hired more than 500 people to help administer the new program after deciding last fall that a new automated system to handle inquiries and an expected flood of paperwork could not be ready in time.
"They are mounting a herculean effort to get this done," the IAVA's Campbell said.
Dale Eisman, (703) 913-9872, dale.eisman@pilotonline.com
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Veterans groups want ...
The current article by Dale Eisman is no doubt true and accurate. But to me it a another in a continuing series of slaps in the face to me and those who marched before todays highly paid troops.
As a 1964, i.e., 1964, US Army length of service military retiree who served this deceitful, thankless and unforgiving nation on the "low" draft-era pay and non-existent allowances I was BETRAYED along with 432,000 cohorts on future retired pay by the changing of a decades old law regarding how retired pay would be paid in the future. Consequently we remaining less than 20,000 have seen, witnessed, and endured a retired pay discrimination that is all of 1/3 - double or more less than our ingrate retired successors.
Medicare dis not even exist when I retired. Today I pay all of the health care for my wife of over 60 years and myself.
By staying in service at leadership urging I was to discover that on retirement I had only 27 days of GI educational benefits so my wife had o go to work to pay my higher education. What a nation we wasted our lives for? I feel betrayd again.
IAVA's Official Statement on GI Bill Benefits
IAVA's full statement regarding GI Bill benefits is linked below. Please help us spread the word and correct this situation. Thanks.
http://iava.org/press-room/press-releases/iava-statement-gi-bill-benefits
The recent article, “Veterans groups want cap on tuition aid under new G.I. bill,” printed in the Virginian-Pilot, grossly misstated the position of IAVA regarding the new GI Bill benefit by implying we are seeking a reduction in the value of that benefit. There is already a cap on the benefits available under the new GI Bill – it is a cap that varies wildly and unfairly by state. IAVA supports a fairer, national ceiling which would increase the benefit for many veterans who wish to attend private colleges or universities, and would have no effect on anyone attending a public school. Ideally, there would be no cap. But if there is a cap, it should be fair and generous.
The new GI Bill is intended to give every veteran access to an affordable college education, but the VA’s recently-issued regulations have made the benefits system both confusing and unfair. Right now, a veteran attending a private school in Arkansas might end up tens of thousands of dollars in d
another...
..."Feel Good" project that is heading for a train wreck. All it needed was a little adjusting. Eventually it will rubber-band back in the opposite direction because it's unsustainable down the road. As far the Tricare debaqcle to happen very soon, I can only hope there's a grandfather clause for those who already served in tough times and leave us alone since we can't go back make alternate decisions ot the adjustments. Thanks to the Carter era i don't have any post-active duty educational benefits whatsoever, so leave my medical plan alone.
This is nothin. More to come.
As a high priority of the Obama administration the one of most interest to Retired Military is in Article 189. If approved by Congress the it would initiate cost sharing to require retirees to pay the first $525 of medical cost and 50% of the next $4,725 for a first year cost of $2,888 per person. It would be indexed to increase with inflation. A reason given for this action (for PR effect) is "overuse" by Retirees. This will be a major increase for anyone using TRICARE related services, not just TRICARE for Life (TFL). Here is a link to the OMB Report; They are out to increase cost for active duty, retirees not eligible for TFL and those using TFL. http://www.cbo.gov/ For those who have never opened one of these web sites from OMB: 1. double click on the above URL. 2. click on PDF. 3. click on the binoculars. 4. do a search for TFL. Search for TRICARE and read 95, 96 and 97. This is in addition to all the VA hospital funding which is badly needed they cut from the Scamulus Bill.
Much to fix..
One of the big problems with this bill, that was questioned but still enacted, is that it treats any and all sevice after 3 years as the same. A person who has only 3 years in service gets the same fully vested benefit as does someone who devotes a full career to the military (20 years or more). There's no reward for longevity. Certainly, criteria like wounds and disability from service should be factored in, and those people taken care of. People who served in a combat zone should have some things factored in their favor as well. The way the bill is now, it takes away a significant incentive to stay in beyond 3 years.
As far as who is apying the tab, I think the states should provide some money towards the recipients. Of course, if they were illegal aliens, they probably would. Being military, they don't rate as much in way too many states...
First of all let's dispel
First of all let's dispel Bush bashing and Rummy crap. Obama is keeping the Patriot Act (monitoring email and phone calls included), not cutting funding in Iraq (maintaining same levels as Bush and "Rummy". Not re- implementing the "Fairness Doctrine". Obama has increased spending (so didn't Bush). Why? Bottom line is Obama gets the Intel brief we and congress don't see. Soooooo, difference? No. At least very, very, little. Now to the GI Bill. What is so complicated about it? For you IAVA simpletons....here is the "complicated" process;
1. Determine you're eligibility. It's easy. 2. Sign up. 3. Go To School.
4. Graduate. 5. Get Job. Cost to you? Nothing! Most will make money! Key word here "Most" or "Majority". Now if you were fortunate to be born in a state where tuition is very high then more money goes to the institution of choice. If you were born in a state with low tuition rates then the money still goes to the institution of choice. Also check out the "Yellow Ribbon program. It too is real simple.
jibberjab
When did Obama cut Iraq funding? And if you want to complain about the lack of body armor and armor plating in vehicles, talk to Bush and Rummy.
My husband is a retired
My husband is a retired veteran. He joined the Navy at age 17 with a high school diplompa and retired after 21 years and 9 days with a bachelors and a masters degree...both from a prestigious private university. His student loans (thanks to the tuition assistance available from the US Navy) was a grand total of $8K - a drop in the bucket compared to the actual cost.
His disability, retirement and GI Bill enabled him to move on to an advanced professional degree, also at a prestious private university...and while the last four years have been a bit tough, and we do indeed have some hefty student loans now, we look forward to a comfortable life after graduation.
To those who say the military does not look after its vets: I'm sorry, but you don't know what you are talking about. I cannot think of a single organization that give its people better educational and medical benefits.
Veterans need
these BASIC benefits. Ellisposoid is right on spot. Good grief folks, prisoners get these education benefits while serving time. If they get hurt they are immediately attended to, because, "we" are afraid of lawsuits indicating bad treatment or no treatment. "their" rights abused, what about all of the service members' rights? Good grief, where are our priorities?
Folks, stand up for the service members who make our life possible. Note already heard, Obama cutting Iraq funding. So does that mean they will not have the body armor or uparmored vehicles?
Wron answer Ellipsoid
You wrote” However, we fly the flag, display the stickers . What a joke.! They die for us suffer a lifetime when they arrive home. Why wait for Obama to bring them home.? Soldiers, lay down your weapons and come home.”
These young men and women in our military understand that just because they are given an lawful order which they might disagree with, it is their DUTY to carry it out to the best of their ability. These young people have COURAGE, Responsibility, and MORAL Character that goes along with being a member of the military. They love this country and will do what is necessary to protect her from enemies. Statements like you made above are a disgrace towards everything these Brave young men and women sacrifice for and is an insult to each and everyone who has ever served defending this Great country. WE DO Not just lay our weapons down and come home TILL THE JOB ASSIGNED US IS DONE.