New GI Bill's Recruiting Impact Debated

Team Infidel

Forum Spin Doctor
Wall Street Journal
June 28, 2008
Pg. 3
By Yochi J. Dreazen and Sarah Lueck
WASHINGTON -- The government is set to offer the biggest boost to veterans' education benefits since the concept was first created after World War II. That presents the Pentagon with a pressing question: Will the offer of a free education cause it to lose more troops than it can attract?
The new incentives are part of a war-funding bill that the Senate approved Thursday and that President Bush is expected to sign into law within days. The benefits will cover the cost of a four-year public college degree for veterans who have served at least three years of active duty since Sept. 11, 2001. Veterans will also receive a monthly stipend for living expenses and up to $1,000 a year for books and supplies.
The Bush administration and many Republican lawmakers, including likely presidential nominee John McCain, initially opposed the bill, arguing the benefit would encourage troops to quit. After an overwhelming Senate vote and the addition of a provision allowing veterans to transfer benefits to a spouse or child -- a top demand of Sen. McCain -- the opposition disappeared.
But the impact on military staffing is still an open question. Pentagon officials and military officers say the measure will lead some to leave the military instead of re-enlisting. "We believe that offering this benefit after just 36 months will, in all likelihood, lead to some people taking advantage of it...who we are trying to keep in the force," Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said Wednesday.
A recent Congressional Budget Office report said the legislation would reduce the number of troops re-enlisting in the military by 16%. That would be a significant blow to a military already facing manpower strains because of long wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Supporters of the bill point to a different aspect of the CBO report: its conclusion that the new bill will boost the number of recruits by 16%, an increase that would allow the military to cut its enlistment bonuses and other recruiting costs by $5.6 billion over the next five years.
"It is obviously more appealing for an applicant to hear that all or most of his or her education will be paid for, rather than some," said Mike Abrams, a Marine Corps. captain who works in a recruiting office in New York. Mr. Abrams, 28, is waiting to hear from New York University's business school whether he has been accepted. He had planned the move before the bill came into play but is happy that it may help pay his costs.
Some experts on military demography say the bill may attract a disproportionate number of would-be soldiers and Marines who want to attend college. Those recruits, in turn, would be likelier to have high-school diplomas, which has traditionally been one of the factors that best predicts how well a young man or woman does in the armed forces.
Such a profile "means they'd be more productive and stay in the military longer than other recruits," said Jim Hosek, who directs the Forces and Resources Policy Center of the nonprofit Rand Corp.
The bill is designed as a modern version of the first GI Bill, and its impact on veterans of today's conflicts could be nearly as far-reaching as the original measure's impact on the post-World War II generation.
"It's going to give us the same opportunity the WWII veterans and Korean War veterans had," said Matt Randle, a 27-year-old in Tucson, Ariz. He has been slowly working his way through two years of junior college in the five years since he has been out of the Army. He hopes now to transfer to the University of Arizona to get a bachelor's degree.
Bryan Bailey served in the Army in both Iraq and Afghanistan but has struggled to make ends meet while attending a Miami community college. When his grandfather served in World War II, the GI Bill gave him enough money to attend Yale. Mr. Bailey, by contrast, had to move in with his parents to afford full-time classes in criminal justice.
"I'm not asking to go to Yale, but if it would pay for my fourth year of school, it would help," said Mr. Bailey, 28. He already knows how he wants to use the new government aid: to fund a transfer to the University of Miami, a degree he says "holds a little bit more weight."
Veterans previously received $39,600 or less for their education, which falls short of the cost of a four-year degree. When the new measure takes effect in August 2009, young Americans who joined the military as a way to fund college will now be able to easily afford it.
"Sticker shock will no longer keep them from thinking about going to a nearby private college or the flagship four-year university in their state," said Jim Wright, president of Dartmouth College, which is private but plans to grant veterans additional aid to help them afford its tuition.
 
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