Student Veterans Win in VA Reform Bill

Some win, some lose.  The VA Reform Bill, set to be signed into law on Thursday, demands that all public schools receiving GI Bill funds provide veterans with in-state tuition, saving students thousands of dollars per year.  Currently, many states already offer veterans in-state tuition.  This bill would extend that benefit to all states.

The losers, however, may be public schools, most of which have already swallowed huge cutbacks during the past recession. Veterans were a reliable source of much-needed revenue. The student veteran paid the difference between in-state and out-of-state costs, while the federal government covered the core in-state tuition fees. Public schools will now receive only the in-state fees.

Not all schools are subject to the new law, however. Private and for-profit schools already pull in the majority of funds distributed through the GI Bill.  Eight of the top 10 schools who received GI Bill funds for the 2012-2013 academic year were for-profit colleges, according to a Senate report (read here). Taxpayers spend twice as much, on average, to send a veteran to a for-profit school even though analysis shows that most students fail to obtain a degree. Almost 66 percent of students enrolled in for-profit schools dropped out in 2008-2009 without obtaining a degree.

For-profit colleges are also well paid. The University of Phoenix may be paid up to $20,000 per year through veterans’ benefits. Over the past five years, in fact, the University of Phoenix has received over $1 billion from 80,000 veterans using the GI Bill. Investigators say that private colleges often fail in core educational missions – educating students and helping them find jobs – all the while loading them with debt or sucking dry a GI’s educational benefits. Seven of the eight for-profit schools currently under investigation by state attorneys general or other federal agencies for “deceptive or misleading recruiting” are on the top-federal-aid list for receiving the GI Bill.

The Center for investigative Reporting found that a single campus of the University of Phoenix received $95 million — more than the entire University of California system — yet had an overall graduation rate under 15 percent. (No statistics were available that broke out veterans graduation rate.) Three hundred of California’s for-profit private schools failed to pass minimum standards for accreditation, yet they still received GI Bill funds. Many veterans now feel “tricked” into attending for-profit schools that fail to deliver a quality education.

Yet they stay in business through creative marketing and aggressive recruitment using veterans to reach out to target young veterans whose pockets are still full of GI Bill benefits.

For-profit school lobbyists routinely block legislation that attempt to determine whether veterans are getting a good education through for-profit schools. Additional losers may also include states, like Nevada and Idaho, that had already passed legislation providing the same benefits in order to lure veterans to their colleges and their state. Veterans “bring a worldly view,” says Ross Bryant, a veteran who attends the University of Nevada Las Vegas as an in-state student. “[States] hope we will stay here.”

by Lynn Goya

8/4/2014

Lynn Goya is a regional best-selling author and Emmy-nominated writer who covers business, people, the environment, and families for regional, national and international publications including USA Today, Audubon and Outdoor Family. With many family members in the military, including an uncle who was a fighter pilot and POW in WW II, she has long been an advocate for military men and women.

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