New GI Bill Boosts Benefits

A new GI Bill has been in the works, and now it’s here. Dubbed the Forever GI Bill, it corrects many of the problems and inadequacies of previous veteran education-benefits legislation. In an amazing show of cooperation, both the House and Senate pushed through the final bill in only a few weeks. There was snarling along the way, but they got it done.

The biggest change? There will no longer be a 15-year limit on using educational benefits. Veterans who have been out for years and realize they need more education to progress in their careers will now be able to do it.

Here are some other changes:

• The Yellow Ribbon Program, which provides benefits to surviving spouses and dependents of service members who died in the line of duty, are expanded.

• Veterans who were partway through their education when their school abruptly closed will be able to have benefits restored for any credits that don’t transfer.

• Reservists and Purple Heart recipients will now get their benefits.

• Veterans who seek degrees in STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) will get more benefits, either a lump sum or nine extra months of benefits.

• Schools will be required to train those who help enroll veterans, and to provide more campus vocation and educational counseling.

One potential glitch: To pay for all this, living stipends will be decreased so they’re equal to active-duty service members’ housing allowances.

None of this happens today. Some changes will be effective Jan. 1, 2018, and some next August. Some might not happen for a few years. But it’s there; it’s in writing.

If you hear the legislation title The Harry W. Colmery Veterans Educational Assistance Act of 2017 and wonder who Colmery is, he was the commander of the American Legion who originally wrote (by hand) the GI Bill … back in 1944. You have him to thank.