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In accordance with the new GI Bill – officially the Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act of 2008 – eligible veterans will be able to get their tuition covered at the most expensive public college in the state, based on undergraduate resident tuition and fees, in addition to getting housing and book stipends, according to an Inside Higher Ed article.
“It’s definitely going to be a good thing,” said Andrew Masciola, president of the University of Massachusetts’ Veterans and Service Members Association (VASMA). “It’s going to raise up the benefit levels for active duty guys and everyone else coming back that don’t get the same benefits that the [National] Guard guys currently get,” he said.
However, the legislation is expected to cost Congress $28.1 billion over the first five years and $78.1 billion through 2018, Inside Higher Ed reported. Some are concerned the cost will increase if the preliminary rates published on the Veterans Affairs’ (VA) website stand.
In Texas, for example, the maximum charge per credit hour listed is $1,333, meaning students pay $1,333 for every credit taken. The maximum total fees per term in the Lone Star State are $12,750, according to Inside Higher Ed.
But the figures in the VA’s table vary greatly on a state-by-state basis. Kentucky and Massachusetts are marked as not having responded to the VA’s request for data.
Bryan J. Cook, director of the Center for Policy Analysis at the American Council on Education, compared the VA’s published maximum rates to flagship university rates across the country. He told Inside Higher Ed that the VA’s rates were significantly higher in about 30 states.
“In most states, students would be eligible for a tuition and fees amount above [that of] the highest-costing flagships,” Cook told Inside Higher Ed. “Essentially, what it looks like they’ve done is they’ve taken the highest charge per credit hour of a particular institution and then they found the highest fee amount at an institution, but they could be two completely different institutions.
“And then you put those together to come up with the amount that a student would be eligible for under the new GI Bill in that particular state,” he continued.
According to Inside Higher Ed, if rates in certain states remain higher than what was anticipated, it could mean a transfer of federal educational benefits to private colleges, both nonprofit and for-profit.
For-profit colleges educate more veterans than almost any other institution of higher education, with the University of Phoenix (an online college) as the leader in terms of receiving veterans’ benefits.
Masciola acknowledged the confusion involved with the new GI Bill, but said he’s thankful the legislation has been passed and hopes to soon hear that the uncertainty surrounding the GI Bill’s language is cleared up.
Domenic Poli can be reached at dpoli@student.umass.edu.
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