VFW Deputy Legislative Director Ryan Gallucci was invited to participate in the roundtable discussion, alongside many signatories from a January letter to House and Senate leadership and the Obama Administration. Participants sought to identify issues faced by student-veterans pursuing an education with the Post-9/11 GI Bill in an effort to build consensus on how to improve educational decision-making for today’s veterans. Congressional offices sent staff to Indianapolis specifically to listen to the discussion.
The roundtable comes in the wake of a report from the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions that implied some schools were more interested in the guaranteed tuition aspect of enrolling GI Bill recipients than on the student-veteran’s academic career.
After analyzing the Senate report and reaching out to academia, VA officials and student-veterans, the VFW determined that what the report exposed was more the lack of information than any wrongdoing. Student-veterans were not receiving information prior to enrolling to help them make proper academic decisions based on career goals. And once enrolled, there was little information about alternatives should they become dissatisfied with their school or academic choice. In other words, they felt locked in once a choice was made, which might account for part of the dropout rate.
In his remarks, Gallucci focused on improving delivery of academic counseling resources VA is already supposed to offer to potential student-veterans, improving information flow to separating service members through the military’s transition assistance program, or TAP, and revisiting the role of State Approving Agencies, or SAAs, who serve as boots-on-the-ground to approve G.I. Bill education programs in each state.
Gallucci said that the VFW consistently hears from student-veterans who do not understand their benefits and have hit dead ends searching for reliable answers. Many point out that VA hotlines are ineffective and resources on the web are confusing. Gallucci drew on his own experiences navigating the G.I. Bill, explaining how student-veterans may not be receiving the best education for them because they are not armed with the right information.
Over the last year, the VFW has testified on this issue on multiple occasions, and successfully pushed for an executive order to improve information delivery to student-veterans. VFW has also helped to introduce legislation in both the House and Senate that would further improve consumer information and consumer protections for student-veterans.
From the roundtable, participants agreed that student-veteran advocates needed to refocus the discussion on improving consumer information for student-veterans, rather than maligning certain sectors of higher education – a phenomenon major media outlets have taken up since the Senate released its report in late July.
This fall, your VFW plans to push Congress to move on this legislation; particularly during the VFW’s fall legislative conference in September, when VFW advocates are scheduled to meet with every House and Senate office. Check back regularly with this blog for updates.
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