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Still Waiting for Benefits
The updated GI Bill brings the promise of higher education to the nation’s veterans, but many are still waiting to see their benefits.
By Madeleine Dubus
January 14, 2010
American troops in Korea are briefed on the new GI Bill. (Flickr/usag.yongsan)
An updated version of the GI Bill, championed by Sen. Jim Webb and signed into law by President George W. Bush in 2008, promises full tuition payment paid directly to the most expensive state school, a $1000 stipend for books, and a monthly stipend for housing based on the zip code of the school’s location. It's something that Nick Rader, 24 and a veteran of the Navy who served three overseas tours in Korea, Iraq, and Afghanistan, has seen firsthand. “It’s a pretty sweet deal,” says Rader, a recent veteran who attends North Seattle Community College. “I pretty much get paid to go to school.”
Rader intends to stay at North Seattle Community College for the next quarter and then transfer to either NYU or UCLA in the fall of 2010. After graduation, he says he will take his benefits as long as they will last him, about another three and a half years, to pursue his Ph.D. in Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics. Rader supplements his benefits working in his school’s registrar office, processing GI Bill paperwork and advising veterans. “It’s enough to survive. It’s perfect for a single guy living in a studio apartment, but if you have a family, I’d say stay in the military,” he says.
Though in many ways Rader is right, the GI Bill may be a “sweet deal”; things become more difficult when these benefits are delayed. Matthew Baker, 28, a Veteran from Purcell, Okla., who served in the Navy on a tour of the Iraq war in 2006. He’s a senior at the University of Oklahoma and receives benefits under the Pre-9/11 GI Bill. But as of Jan. 5, his benefits were 12 weeks behind.
Baker manages to cover the delays working as a sports reporter for the Purcell Register, the city’s local paper. But for veterans whose lives solely depend on their benefits, a month or two of delays can cause dramatic change, forcing them to withdraw from school, or miss mortgage or rent payments. “It [would be] like having a full-time job, then [suddenly] being unemployed,” Baker says.
Karol Olesiak, 31, agrees. Olesiak, who served with Rader and Baker on the same ship in the Navy, just finished his first semester at Eugene Lang College at the New School University in New York City under an additional VA program called the Yellow Ribbon Program, which covers tuition at private colleges and universities by splitting the cost among the VA, federal student aid, and institutional aid.
Olesiak says he sent his paperwork into the VA in July last year, but when he arrived at school in September he was informed that his tuition had not been paid and he had no book or housing stipend. He started “a mass email campaign” to teachers, advisors, and registrars whom he thought could help.
He even had to take days off of school to try to reach the VA office for answers. “You can’t get through to them. You can’t,” Olesiak says. “It’s like calling a radio station for a prize.”
He was able to cover his expenses for rent and books for a couple months, but knew there was no way, in the long term, to stay up-to-date on the expenses and sustain his 19 credit course load. Eventually, he couldn’t afford additional books, and still hadn’t heard what had happened to his benefits. By mid-semester he considered dropping out and getting a job.
It was then, Olesiak says, that he discovered it was The New School—not the VA—that had made the mistake. They never turned in his proof of enrollment forms to the VA office. These are common mistakes when navigating the piles of paper work required for VA benefits. Additionally, the VA is experiencing an overwhelming demand from applicants; according to a Jan. 4 report from the VA, the department still had 48,000 claims to process. When Campus Progress asked a New School registrar employee responsible for correspondence with the VA to comment on Olesiak’s situation, the employee refused and said only the school’s responsibility is to send proof of enrollment and inform the VA of any change in the student’s credit status.
Though his VA benefits are not confirmed by The New School for next semester, the university has allowed Olesiak to register for courses, but he was required to sign a waiver stating that if they do not come through, he is responsible for his tuition balance. He signed anyway, knowing he’d never be able to cover it if the VA payments don't come through. Despite believing that this semester’s difficulty with the VA and The New School led to his GPA suffering, Olesiak says his priority is to continue his education.
“This legislation is supposed to be an equalizer,” Olesiak, a junior transfer student, says. “But I feel like I was put at a disadvantage.”
Madeleine Dubus is a writing fellow at The New School and a staff writer for Campus Progress.
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you forgot to add the disclaimer that the student will have to save up for the semester because he wont get that stipend, book money, or anything else untill after the semester is over. This semester even longer a wait, after cgetting the certification letter from 10 weeks to 18
— michael - Feb 23, 05:32 PM - #i reread it. Thats excatly how it is. You comit to school only to later find out that you will have to wait untill the end of the semester. The schools hold you accountable just the same. The VA should uphold their end, not let the problem get worse.
— michael - Feb 23, 05:36 PM - #