VA Loan Updates

When members of the National Guard or Reserves put in the same kind of active duty as the regular Army in the war on terror, they deserve the same benefits of the GI Bill.

Disparity exists in the military benefits that help pay for college. Under current guidelines, members of the National Guard and Reserves who are called to active duty for a war or national emergency are eligible to receive up to $860 a month if they serve two straight years, and they must be in the service while using the GI bill. That varies from the way it works for other veterans, who can gain up to $1,075 a month after active duty, and those veterans have a decade after leaving the military to take advantage of the assistance.

The system was not set up as a slight to troops in the National Guard and Reserves, but it has worked out that way, as they have been very much a part of the battle in Iraq and Afghanistan. Congress should bring the education benefit for Guard and Reserve troops in line with the rest of the military.

Fortunately, Rep. Vic Snyder, D-Ark., is sponsoring a bill to bring more equality and fairness to the education assistance plan. He recognizes the unfairness that Guard and Reserve members have to be in the service to use the benefit while others have a long period after their service to make a decision. Snyder calls the disparity "shameful." But it's not something that can't be fixed.

The nation has high regard for its troops, whether they are in traditional full-service ranks or in the Guard and Reserves and called into a kind of duty many of them never envisioned. The good part is that the GI Bill is in place as a model for the way to help soldiers with college costs. All it takes is an adjustment in the law to bring benefits in line for all of those who serve so well.

Found here.

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