VA Loan Updates

Sam Weber attends morning classes at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. By noon he’s usually asleep, but not for long. Four days a week he reports for work at an alarm company at 8 p.m. and puts in a 10-hour shift.”I can study at work, which is a huge benefit,” said Weber, 25, who is studying for a degree in business management.

With costs of college skyrocketing, it’s not unusual to find students juggling full-time jobs and course loads.

But here’s what’s different about Weber: He’s a U.S. Marine veteran and has served two tours in Iraq.

Serve and learn

Serve your country, and your country will provide you with a college education.

Generations of servicemen have enlisted under that premise, ever since President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the G.I. Bill of Rights into law in 1944.

Conceived largely by Topeka lawyer Harry W. Colmery, a World War I veteran who was national commander of the American Legion, the G.I. Bill changed America.

It opened the doors of academia to the sons and daughters of farmers and factory workers. Three years after passage of the bill, the portion of high school graduates who enrolled in college had increased from 10 percent to 50 percent. Half of the enrollees were veterans. The government paid their tuition and book fees, and covered living expenses.

Money for college, along with the G.I. Bill’s homeownership loan guarantee, paved the way for a new middle class of financially stable, well-educated Americans.

Post-high school education today is not a novelty. It’s considered essential for just about any young adult hoping to land a decent-paying job.

But military service no longer guarantees that a veteran will have an easy time financing a college education, even at a public university. The luster of the G.I. Bill has dimmed.

Tuition and fees

Weber, a 2000 graduate of Lee’s Summit High School, was a student at Longview Community College when terrorists attacked New York and Washington on Sept. 11, 2001. He quickly enlisted in the Marines and was part of the initial force that moved into Iraq from Kuwait in March 2003.

Uncertainty, boredom and illness were the enemies at first. Weber spent his 21st birthday lying on a concrete floor with an IV in his arm.

After rotating back to North Carolina, Weber returned to Iraq in September 2004. He was in the bloody battle to drive insurgents out of the city of Fallujah. A couple of his friends were killed.

By January 2006, Weber had completed his four-year enlistment and was back in the classroom.

While on active duty, he contributed a total of $1,800 from his paychecks to qualify for G.I. tuition benefits. He now receives $1,255 a month from the military. That just about covers tuition and fees at UMKC, which amount to $8,500 a year.

“I’m 25 now. I can’t live at home,” Weber said.

So in order to afford his home in the Waldo neighborhood, Weber works 40 hours a week as night supervisor for the alarm company.

A switch in majors, from political science to business, set him back a semester. Weber figures that if he takes 15 credit hours a semester and goes to school during the summer, he’ll have his degree in a year and a half. His G.I. benefits should stretch just far enough.

One of the first classmates Weber got to know at UMKC was Benjamin Birnbaum. Like Weber, Birnbaum was majoring in business and had served in Iraq. He provided convoy security in the turbulent city of Ramadi.

Also like Weber, Birnbaum works to make ends meet. He has a three-days-a-week job as an executive intern with the National Association of Insurance Commissioners.

But as a member of the Marine Corps Reserve, Birnbaum’s military benefits are less than those of an active-duty veteran. The military pays him $440 a month for his schooling - about half of what he pays in tuition and fees to UMKC.

Solution proposed

Attempts are under way in both chambers of Congress to steer the country back to the notion that returning veterans should receive a free ride through college, or close to it.

Democratic Sen. Jim Webb of Virginia, a veteran, is the lead sponsor of a bill that would increase educational benefits to all members of the military who have served at least two years of active duty, with at least part of that time coming after Sept. 11, 2001. Reserve and National Guard members would be included.

Veterans would receive benefits sufficient to afford tuition at the most expensive public university in their state, plus a monthly stipend of $1,000 for up to 36 months. They would have a 15-year period in which to use their benefits.

Sponsors of the bill, mostly Democrats, contend that better tuition benefits would aid recruiting, help returning veterans cope with readjustment and lift the economy with a more productive workforce.

Opponents, who include some House and Senate Republicans and the Department of Veterans Affairs, say the program is simply too expensive. The VA has put the price tag at an additional $5.4 billion a year. G.I. tuition benefits cost taxpayers about $2 billion last year.

But war itself is expensive. What message does it send to begrudge tuition benefits to veterans when the government already has spent $450 billion on the Iraqi conflict alone?

The Bush administration also argues the promise of a hefty tuition benefit upon withdrawal would discourage Reserve and National Guard members from extending their service.

For young adults, however, military service and college educations are becoming increasingly expensive propositions. Servicemen and women who attempt to do both can find themselves far behind their peers in terms of income.

Sam Weber deferred his college education for four years. Tuition at UMKC increased significantly in that period, but G.I. Bill benefits remained flat.

Benjamin Birnbaum, likewise, saw his education interrupted while he was deployed for training and service in Iraq.

Both veterans are scrambling to catch up with former classmates, who obtained degrees and started careers while Weber and Birnbaum served the country. More generous tuition benefits look less like an expensive entitlement than a necessary means of leveling the playing field.

Found here.

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