Veterans Object to 2nd Class Treatment for Online Students
Four young veterans teamed up on a well reasoned, civil and straightforward article in Washington blog The Huffington Post about a fundamental inequity built into the education support component of the New GI Bill.
This legislation became law in August of this year and among the important provisions in the law is financial support for veterans who enroll in a higher education institution. From the blog post:
"While the new bill increases support for tuition, books and expenses, it sorts veterans into two categories when deciding the housing stipend. For veterans who choose campus-based schools, the benefit increases from the $1,321 cost-of-living stipend available under the old bill to more than $2,000 a month under the new law. For veterans taking online courses, there is no housing stipend at all."
While it's true that veterans pursuing online degrees don't need a dorm room, that doesn't mean that they have no housing expenses. The odds are pretty good that they are supporting a household and family, unlike veterans who are free to walk onto a campus and enroll. A subsidy for education doesn't need to resemble a budget; what matters is that veterans who enroll can afford to stay in school and graduate.
This administration might do something about the VA's history of mediocre service and CYA policies on veteran issues. The President has declared his intention to make jobs available to veterans within the federal government. The Executive Order he signed a few days ago lists 24 executive branch agencies that each must form a Veterans Employment Program "to be responsible for enhancing employment opportunities for veterans within the agency." The agencies are told to develop an operational plan, training programs for disabled vets, and mandatory instruction for human resources personnel and hiring managers on veterans' preference.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has emphasized the department's goal of hiring 50,000 veterans by 2012. It held a job fair for vets in July, and the department says its workforce now is about 25 percent veterans. Yesterday she unveiled a new website designed to provide a one-stop location for veterans and veterans organizations to learn about many veteran outreach initiatives and hiring and contracting opportunities within the Department.
Homeland security is an excellent option for veterans with training in surveillance, law enforcement and all sorts of computer functions. The agency is constantly recruiting for people with a criminal justice degree in their border patrol and immigration divisions. Veterans who have some technical background and obtain a degree in accounting can move into computer forensics, an increasingly important technician's role in the Department's investigative wings.
With the right degree a veteran can qualify for one of hundreds of jobs in the DHS, which can be easily researched through their websites. And in the current political environment, veterans with a distance learning degree from an accredited school may get equal consideration with applicants from brick-and-mortar schools.
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