New GI Bill changes coming into focus p1 - GI Bill Benefits - Tuition Assistance for the Military - Military Times EDGE

A House subcommittee collecting ideas for improving the Post-9/11 GI Bill is zeroing in on three that have wide support, and also has myriad other suggestions to consider.

The three changes with almost unanimous support are:

• Extending the living stipend to students using the new GI Bill solely for distance learning.

Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, D-S.D., chairwoman of the House Veterans' Affairs economic opportunity panel that will be responsible for approving program changes, said there is almost unanimous agreement to paying the living stipend to distance-learning students based on the military housing allowance rate for the ZIP code where a student lives.

• Adding vocational training to courses covered by the Post-9/11 GI Bill, including on-the-job training, apprenticeships and vocational classes covered by the Montgomery GI Bill but not by the new program.

"On return to civilian life, many service members are interested in hitting the ground running," said William Stephens, chairman of the National Association of State Approving Agencies.

"Short-term certificate and diploma programs can be a critical part of a successful transition," he said. "But if they aren't offered at a degree-granting institution, then programs such as truck driving, aviation maintenance, cosmetologist, barber, HVAC, construction trades, allied medical programs such as medical assisting, EMT, etc., are not available for pursuit under the new GI Bill."

• Giving uniformed members of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration and the Public Health Service the right to transfer unused benefits to family members. NOAA and PHS personnel were omitted from the original transfer-rights policy.

Agreement on these issues by military and veterans groups, educators and administrators does not guarantee passage, Herseth Sandlin said, because any expansion of benefits requires money that could be in short supply next year.

Other issues are not specifically related to funding. For example, the Military Coalition, an umbrella group of more than 30 military-related organizations, would like to see the program simplified by combining what are now separate tuition and fee payments into a single payment to schools. This would ensure full costs are covered for students attending four-year public institutions if they are eligible for full program benefits.

The coalition also proposes a single national tuition cap that would apply to all private institutions rather than having tuition caps that vary widely by state.

That change would reduce the "enormous administrative burden on VA, wide and unjustifiable variations in payment rates state to state, and delayed payments to schools on behalf of veteran students," said Bob Norton of the Military Officers Association of America.