Tag Archives: Colin Powell

I’m sure everybody here has heard of the GI Bill, legislation that helped millions of people go to college or get another form of postsecondary training. You’ve probably heard of the current efforts to pass a new GI Bill to do for today’s soldiers what the original GI Bill did for soldiers after World War II. Senator Jim Webb (D) has joined with Senator John Warner (R) and Senator Chuck Hagel (R) to offer the strongest legislation in this regard. Opponents of this legislation, including President Bush and Senator John McCain, are advocating a weaker piece of legislation, offering fewer benefits and tying them to length of service. The difference in the two pieces of legislation centers around two main concerns: cost and retention.

As this states, 7.8 million of the 16 million World War II veterans had participated in some form of postsecondary program by the time the original GI Bill expired on July 25, 1956. That is staggering. Remember as well that before the GI Bill, college was generally something only the rich got involved in. Many of us probably know somebody that went to college because of the GI Bill. My Grandpa for one has told me that he would not have gone to college had it not been for the GI Bill. If you want to dig long enough, you can easily find a statistic of “For every dollar invested in the GI Bill, the United States received [insert large amount here] dollars in benefits.”

We are now seeing that the United States needs another great leap forward in education. College is becoming much less affordable, causing more and more people to be cut off from this opportunity. Hence a new GI Bill. Congratulations are in order for Senators Webb, Warner, and Hagel for getting the ball rolling on this.

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