VFW Joins Roundtable Discussion on Education

The VFW joined education industry experts, congressional staffers and veterans’ advocates from Student Veterans of America for a roundtable discussion on veterans’ education as part of the American Legion’s national convention in Indianapolis this week.

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.

VFW Discusses G.I. Bill with State Approving Agencies

This week the VFW joined the National Association of State Approving Agencies, or NASAA, for the organization's annual conference at the Radisson Hotel in Arlington, Va. State Approving Agencies serve as the "boots on the ground" for certifying G.I. Bill-eligible programs across the country, which is why VFW Deputy Legislative Director Ryan Gallucci was honored to join a distinguished panel of veterans' education experts and veterans' advocates to discuss specific challenges and opportunities for student-veterans who seek to use their Post-9/11 G.I. Bill benefits.

Panelists included Chad Schatz, president of NASAA, Keith Wilson, director of VA education programs, David Brasuell, president of the National Association of State Directors of Veterans Affairs (NASDVA), Dorothy Gillman, president of the National Association of Veterans Program Administrators (NAVPA), Steve Gonzalez, assistant director of the American Legion's National Economic Division, Tom Tarantino, deputy policy director for Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, and Matt Feger, director of development for Student Veterans of America.

The panelists discussed a range of issues facing today's G.I. Bill beneficiaries, including access to benefits, responsible educational decision-making, academic planning, and proper oversight of G.I. Bill-eligible programs. The panelists also took questions from the audience on issues like VA's school compliance surveys, the evolving role of state approving agents, and unique challenges facing Guard and Reserve students.

Gallucci's remarks focused on the VFW's ongoing efforts to ensure veterans have access to quality information with which to make educational decisions and proper recourse mechanisms should they feel they have been victims of fraud, waste or abuse.

Last summer, a Senate investigation concluded that many veterans may be the victims of schools that seek to collect veterans' education dollars, with little intention of conferring relevant degrees or credentials for the veteran.

The VFW believes that a lack of quality information for potential student-veterans and a lack of oversight from VA has created an environment where potentially uninformed or misinformed consumers can be coerced into making poor decisions on how to best use their earned benefits.

Over the last six months, the VFW has discovered that while VA is authorized to offer educational counseling to potential student-veterans, the agency remains dramatically under-resourced to adequately conduct the counseling on a consistent basis. In 2011, more than 800,000 veterans enrolled in G.I. Bill programs, but VA was only able to council 6,400 veterans on their benefits.

Wilson acknowledged that VA is working with the departments of Labor and Defense to integrate educational counseling into the redesign of mandatory transition assistance programs; a step the VFW applauds. However, the VFW also hopes to see legislation that will allow VA to physically contact all potential beneficiaries, explaining in detail the benefits to which they are entitled before the veteran enrolls in an academic program.

Last month, the VFW built a diverse coalition to support improved consumer education and consumer protection for student-veterans, calling on leaders in the House, Senate and the Obama Administration to take action. To read the letter and learn more about the specific steps VFW hopes to take, click here.

The VFW also joined NAVPA's annual conference this week to discuss veterans' education issues. NAVPA is the national organization that represents school certifying officials for the G.I. Bill; the men and women who interact daily with student-veterans on college campuses around the country.

The VFW is currently working closely with leaders in the House and Senate to draft legislation to ensure student-veteran success; legislation that should be introduced in the coming weeks.

Your VFW will continue to advocate on behalf of student-veterans, ensuring they have access to the quality education they have earned. Check back regularly with this blog for updates.

(Images: Top: L-R, Dorothy Gillman, Matt Feger, and Ryan Gallucci were among the participants in Monday's panel on the G.I. Bill, moderated by Joe Wescott, vice president of NASAA. Bottom: State approving agents and veterans' education advocates look on during the panel discussion. Photos courtesy of NASAA.)