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June 2, 2008

Exclusive: The New GI Bill

KT McFarland

For the next few weeks Washington will be drawn into a battle over a new GI bill and like most things in Washington these days, it will be heavily politicized.

The original GI bill received almost unanimous bipartisan support when it was enacted in 1944, and provided combat veterans returning from Germany and Japan with a free college education. Called the "Servicemen's Readjustment Act", the World War II GI bill covered college tuition, books, room and board. Millions of Americans got a college education they would otherwise never have had; it let them live the "American Dream."

The original idea was it would stretch out the reentry of 8 million military personnel into the job market, reward them for their service, and lift the education standards of the nation. Experts have argued that the GI Bill "reinvented America" after World War II. Subsequent studies showed that every dollar spent on the GI bill's education benefits added seven dollars to the US economy. It was never intended as a recruitment tool - the attack on Pearl Harbor and the draft took care of that.

Today, both sides of the political aisle agree the current GI bill is inadequate - with skyrocketing costs of higher education the current GI bill doesn't cover the full cost of college tuition, books, room and board. Nor does it apply to all Guard and Reserve forces, who are seeing unanticipated combat in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Both sides of the political aisle also agree that education benefits have a new role today - they are a powerful recruitment tool for the all-volunteer force. New recruits list "money for college" as their number one reason for joining the military.

There are two new GI bills being proposed. One is offered by Senators McCain, Graham and Burr and calls for expanded education benefits on a sliding scale, which increase the longer a person stays in the military. Their bill also allows the serviceman or woman to transfer his GI benefits to a child or other family member.

Senators Obama and Clinton, Senate Democrats and a majority of Senate Republicans have voted for the Webb-Hagel Bill, which calls for expanded education benefits for those with only three years' service.

The main argument against the Webb-Hagel Bill is that it would hurt retention rates, by as much at 16%, because enlisted men and women will quit the military to take advantage of the generous education benefits. The McCain-Graham-Burr supporters argue their GI Bill still rewards service, but since it is on a sliding scale and transferable, encourages reenlistment and retention of a skilled force.

Supporters of the Webb-Hagel Bill argue any shortfall in reenlistment would be largely offset by new enlistees attracted by the better education benefits.

There are advantages and disadvantages to both bills, but right now America needs to fix its military. We need to attract the best and the brightest to our Armed Forces, we need to keep them in the military by choice not force, and we need to show them - and the country - that we value and honor their service. The best way to do that is with a generous GI Bill. It is an investment in the present, and in the future.

For the last several years we've read with increasing frequency stories about how the US military is stretched too thin; that active duty forces are being sent on longer initial tours with more frequent and lengthier redeployments; that the Guard and Reserves are called up and being used to compensate for the shortage of active duty forces; that retention is down; and enlistment is way, way down. Our military leadership has testified time and again before Congress of their concerns that the military is on the point of breaking.

Yet it is also commonly agreed that our armed forces, especially the Army and Marine Corps, are too small to carry out their current missions in Iraq and Afghanistan. Secretary of Defense Gates has called for an increase of almost 100,000 new troops even in the face of decreasing enlistment and re-enlistment numbers.

According to top Defense Department officials, recruitment is one of the biggest problems facing the Services. In 2004 and 2005, the Army, Army Reserves, National Guard and Marine Corp all missed months of their recruiting goals. Although recruitment figures have improved in the last two years, they are still dramatically behind schedule despite thousands of new recruiters, lowered standards, and more generous signing bonuses.

How are we to fix today's Armed Forces, and expand them without a draft or a serious and fatal degradation in the quality of military personnel?

We need to guarantee a college education to those willing to serve their country, either on active duty or if they see combat in the Guard and Reserves. If they choose to remain in service, we should allow them to transfer those education benefits to their children or spouses. While the McCain-Graham-Burr Bill is good, the Webb-Hagel Bill is better.

Thanks to the success of the Surge Strategy, we will soon wind down our forces in Iraq. Some of them will redeploy to Afghanistan, but many of them will return home. Regardless of how we feel about the Iraq War, or the reasons for going to war, we should never punish the brave men and women who fought there.

As Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Michael Mullen told the graduating class at the Naval Academy last week:

"I started my career here at the Naval Academy 44 years ago, also during a time of war. But it was different then. Americans didn't value their military in 1968. They could not separate their feelings about a war from their feelings about those who served and thus could not bring themselves to invest adequately in either.

"We must never let that happen again. We must preserve the trust and confidence our young men and women in uniform have worked so hard to earn."

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