Sen. Schumer pushes for new GI Bill
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- April
- 2
How many of you Lower Hudson Valley veterans out there benefited from the GI Bill, which helps veterans pay for college?
Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-NY) announced today that he strongly supports a plan to revamp the existing bill, arguing the outdated benefits are not equipped to handle the wave of young veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, coming home to rising tuition costs.
The new GI Bill, introduced by Sen. Jim Webb (D-VA), calls for increased financial aid for education programs, including larger stipends for living costs and educational expenses like books. The bill has support from members of both parties, but some critics argue the plan is too costly and complex, and would make it harder to keep people in the military past their first enlistment.
Only 15 percent of the troops currently deployed hold a bachelor’s degree, and more than 65 percent of soldiers currently deployed are under the age of 30, the press release states.
Edited to add: Newsweek recently had a good story about this problem, followed by a column by Anna Quindlen.
This entry was posted
on Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008 at 7:10 am by Nicole Neroulias.
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"...some critics argue the plan is too costly and complex, and would make it harder to keep people in the military past their first enlistment."
How about viewing this as part of a plan to keep veterans off the streets (as homeless people)?
this Bill is the first step to help this generations vets as successful as the WW II vets. Like richard said successful keeps them of the homeless path.
sen schumer plan for a new gi bill of rights is right on the money We can spend billions of dollars fighting a war why not spend some of that money helping those who fought it when they come back from hell
Email John McCain… shame him into supporting this bill.
Murphy
Who said he was against the bill? He never did.
According to the DAV, an organization above reproach in my opinion (our best ally), McCain very seldom votes for any bills that increase benefits, at least in their tabulations of the 2001-2007 votes in the Senate. They rate him an '0%' for 4 of those years. He has never supported full-funding for the VA. You are right, being that he needs veterans this time around, he may change his position on this bill.
Now that hes in the lime light he will do the right thing!