Military Update
Veterans to see big increase in education benefits
Military Update focuses on issues affecting pay, benefits and lifestyle of active and retired servicepeople. Its author, Tom Philpott, is a Virginia-based syndicated columnist and freelance writer. He has covered military issues for almost 25 years, including six years as editor of Navy Times. For 17 years he worked as a writer and senior editor for Army Times Publishing Co. Philpott, 49, enlisted in the U.S. Coast Guard in 1973 and served as an information officer from 1974-77.
By Tom Philpott
Montgomery GI Bill education benefits will jump this month by 19.2 percent, and rise a total of 46 percent by Oct. 1, 2003, under the Veterans Education and Benefits Expansion Act that President Bush signed into law Dec. 27.
The MGIB increases, trimmed in recent weeks from levels first endorsed by the House Veterans Affairs Committee, remain the centerpiece of a package of veteran benefit improvements enacted in the first session of the 107th Congress.
Veterans also will see increases in the VA home loan guaranty program, grants for adapting housing and automobiles to accommodate the severely disabled, aid available to homeless veterans and more.
Effective Jan. 1, the MGIB benefit for full-time students rose from $762 a month to $800.ÊA second increase, to $900 a month, is set for Oct. 1 this year and will be followed by a third increase, to $985, in October 2003.
"They did a great job," said a Pentagon education official of the MGIB increases.
House committee chairman Christopher H. Smith, R-N.J., had sought to raise MGIB benefits by 64 percent — to $1,100 for full-time students — by the fall of 2003.ÊBut it was pared to 51 percent during House deliberations and cut further, to 46 percent, in negotiations with the Senate.
"They did go with the number Mr. Smith wanted in '02 but he was knocked down from the $1,100" sought, said the Pentagon official.Ê"With everything going on (with the war on terrorism and a troubled economy), they didn't want to put that in and sort of bust the bank.ÊBut you know, anything can happen next year."
Two years ago, when the full-time MGIB benefit was $536 a month, a coalition of educators and veterans groups urged Congress to raise payments sharply, to $975. That would be enough, they said, to cover average tuition and expenses for student commuters at four-year public universities.
With education costs rising — by 4.5 percent this past year — the new MGIB benefit of $800 won't fully cover the cost of a public college, and raising it to $985 by October 2003 won't close the gap entirely.ÊBut MGIB veterans should be able to avoid deep out-of-pocket costs while using their benefits.
The rise in MGIB benefits through 2003 could increase pressure on lawmakers to open the program to more active-duty members, both those who, even recently, declined enrollment and those who were never given the option.ÊThe only veteran education program offered to people who entered service from January 1977 through June 1985 was the unpopular Veterans Educational Assistance Program. Under VEAP, participants deposited up to $2,700 in an education account.ÊThe government matched each dollar withdrawn for education with $2 in benefits.
Many members who found VEAP unattractive and declined to participate are now nearing retirement. Some resent the fact that younger service members, after having spent a tour on active duty, can leave with generous MGIB benefits that were never offered to them.
Congress did arrange two "open seasons" in recent years for the VEAP generation to convert to MGIB, but they applied only to people who initially elected to enroll in VEAP.ÊThe first transfer opportunity came in 1996-97.ÊMembers still on active duty who had "active" VEAP accounts — balances of at least $1 — could switch to MGIB if they made the standard $1,200 "contribution."
Starting in November 2000, a second, yearlong open season allowed VEAP members still on active duty to transfer to MGIB, this time in return for a $2,700 contribution.ÊAmong those eligible were 60,000 VEAP participants with "zero balances" in their education accounts.ÊThe zero balances had disqualified them from switching to MGIB during the first open season.
Preliminary figures for the past year show more than 10,000 VEAP enrollees elected to convert to MGIB by the Oct. 31, 2000, deadline.ÊBut signups were far lower than Pentagon officials had expected.
"A lot of these folks are senior and didn't need" more education benefits, the official said.Ê"They either got their degrees while in service, using tuition assistance or some other way.ÊI also think the $2,700 (buy-in) scared them.ÊThat seemed like a lot of money, so they didn't take advantage of it."
But a 46 percent rise in MGIB benefits over the next two years "is something those VEAP-conversion folks didn't know about," he added.
Smith's House committee drafted most of the veterans benefits bills approved in 2001, which includes $3.1 billion over five years to expand VA education, housing, burial and disability benefits.ÊAn additional $1 billion is aimed at homeless veterans and those at risk to become homeless.
John D. Rockefeller, D-W.Va., chairman of the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee, helped shape final compromises. One Rockefeller initiative allows accelerated payment of MGIB benefits, to provide up to 60 percent of the cost up front, for short-term or high-tech education programs.
One provision enacted will protect Reservists and National Guard members called to active duty for the war on terrorism from losing MGIB benefits if courses are interrupted by deployments.
Loan ceilings under the VA home loan guaranty program will rise to $240,000, from $202,800. Burial and funeral expense coverage will rise 25 percent and the allowance for burial plots will double.
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