Ensuring GI Bill money is well spent

A study of the federal money spent in the past two years to send veterans to college shows some disturbing trends.

Too often, veterans are using the GI Bill to go to expensive private schools that advertise flexible schedules and expedited degree programs. They take out loans to help pay the costs, but nearly half of vets drop out within a year. Many default on loans because they can't get a decent-paying job.

The GI Bill, a multibillion-dollar student aid program, was designed to improve the lives of people who have served our country in the past decade, as well as their families. The program has reached that goal for thousands of soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines.

As its chief patron, U.S. Sen. Jim Webb, noted, the benefit "continues to be a great investment in the future of our country through the people who have served."

But a Senate committee's recent study showed there's little oversight in where $13 billion has been spent and what more than 600,000 veterans got for it.

One-fourth of veterans using the benefit have enrolled in private, for-profit schools, where much of their tuition goes to profits and marketing.

The cost to attend these schools is five times the cost of community colleges - even more expensive than Harvard or Yale, according to the report by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.

If veterans at these schools were graduating with degrees or certificates and finding decent-paying jobs in their field, there'd be no argument. But unlike beneficiaries of the World War II GI Bill, which generated seven dollars in economic activity for every dollar spent educating a veteran, many of today's service members are struggling.

The default rate on loans at for-profit colleges is 15 percent. At public colleges and universities, the rate is less than half that.

The for-profit schools, the report found, are "explicitly targeting veterans, servicemembers and their spouses because of a loophole in federal regulations" that allows private for-profit schools to be almost completely funded with federal money.

At Strayer University, which last year got more GI Bill money in Virginia - $48.5 million - than any other school, marketing and profit accounted for 52 percent of school revenues.

After World War II, when fly-by-night schools were popping up specifically to collect GI Bill money, Congress came up with standards and required state agencies to review them. Lawmakers also said that no more than 90 percent of for-profit schools' funding could come from federal aid.

The loophole in the current GI Bill: It does not count as part of the 90 percent federal aid limit. And it sets no standards for graduation rates.

Such flaws in the two-year-old law have led many veterans groups, including Veterans of Foreign Wars, Student Veterans of America and Blue Star Families, to question the lack of oversight.

Virginia's veterans can get up to $17,500 per year in tuition and fees, which go directly to the school. Service members are free to pursue myriad programs in which they earn an associate or bachelor's degree or become certified in a technical field or trade.

But they need to know more. The Veterans Administration should arm service members with information about what's available and what they'll get when they enroll. They should know whether and where credits transfer and what the graduation rates are, as well as job placement rates after graduation. They should know whether they'll need a student loan and the chances of default.

Veterans have earned their time in the classroom. America should make sure they're getting the education they need to succeed as civilians.