Making college affordable for veterans is critical
By CHARLES HOWES, Published April 13, 2007

Since the end of World War II when the G.I. Bill was first established, veterans have held the educational benefits portion of the bill in high esteem. Although use of educational benefits was most prevalent following World War II, veterans of every succeeding conflict have taken advantage of at least some portion of these benefits upon completing their military obligation.

The popularity of technical and community colleges rose during the Vietnam era as many veterans looked to obtain new work skills or to enhance vocations learned during their military careers. This trend is not likely to subside soon. With the U.S. now engaged in a “war on terror,” and with the number of trade and technical jobs diminishing in the U.S. due to off-shoring and the new global economy, there is little doubt that hundreds of thousands of new veterans will be pursuing the opportunities offered by their local technical and community colleges.

The advantages of direct marketing community colleges to military veterans were discussed as early as a year before our most recent conflict began. In September 2000, George Boggs, president of the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC), noted during a House hearing several examples of community colleges providing training, job placement and related services to veterans.

For example, North Essex Community College (Massachusetts) started a development center that works with veterans’ groups on campus. The center helps veterans with their “re-careering” and it offers individual and group career counseling. It also offers veterans an opportunity to sample particular career fields through externships or adult cooperative education programs that allow participants to work in at least three fields each term. Veterans also gather valuable career experience in the private sector through the program.

Fayetteville Technical Community College (North Carolina) has a veterans’ coordinator specializing in evaluating veterans with service connected physical or mental disabilities and placing them in training programs that help them find suitable employment.

The Community College of Baltimore County (Maryland) has an office at each of three campuses to handle student veterans’ issues. All veterans are identified and interviewed upon application to the college. Veterans are required to meet with counselors every semester to review academic progress.

Central Piedmont Community College (North Carolina) has a career center that, although open to all students, specializes in providing veterans with a resume-writing service that emphasizes transferable skills. This accelerates the veterans’ transition into corporations or nonprofit organizations. The college actively reaches out to the military community by making presentations to the National Guard and reserve units in its service area.

Many of the examples Boggs cited, while honorable in their efforts and intentions, show little in the way of creative thinking or aggressive marketing. Veterans are not looking for procedures or policies designed to make them equal among the student population. Their service to the country certainly has not made them less of a citizen, nor has it handicapped them intellectually. Veterans do not need an affirmative action program. What veterans want is recognition and accreditation for their lost time and sacrifice and for experience gained in military occupational fields.

An example of the type of “out-of-the-box” thinking needed by AACC would be a recent proposal sponsored by Sen. Al Bauer, a state senator in Washington. The bill, S. 5215, exempts tuition increases for veterans in Washington state universities and colleges. It exempts qualified Vietnam and Persian Gulf War veterans from tuition increases both indefinitely and retroactively. For instance, student veterans of the Vietnam War would pay the cost of tuition of 1977 and Gulf War veterans would not see an increase from the tuitions paid in the 1991 school year. The bill does not mandate these exemptions but simply allows schools to provide a waiver at their discretion.

The original G.I. Bill of 1944 fully covered tuition, books and fees at any U.S. college or job training program, public or private. The current G.I. Bill, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs, only covers about 70 percent of the cost of attending a four-year public institution.

Many veterans say that this does not come close to meeting their financial needs, and the benefits are often difficult to obtain. Increasing tuition cost and veterans that are more likely to be married with children add to the financial burden most veterans face in earning a degree.

The needs of the newest group of American veterans are going to be quite different from those of their World War II, Korea and Vietnam counterparts. Colleges that actively research these needs and market directly to returning veterans will be at the forefront of the newest trend in community and technical colleges.