Post-9/11 GI Bill glitch fixed in California - Army News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Army Times

Post-9/11 GI Bill glitch fixed in California

A semantic change has erased a glitch in the ability of California-based service members and veterans to gain full tuition benefits under the Post-9/11 GI Bill, the White House announced Tuesday.

The resolution is one of a number of issues unaccounted for when legislators enacted the generous new education benefit last year that the Obama administration and its Department of Veterans Affairs say they are fixing.

The Post-9/11 GI Bill offers some education benefits to those who have served on active duty for as little as three months, while those with three or more years of service qualify for full benefits — full tuition and fees up to the maximum undergraduate rate of the most expensive public university in the state where the student is attending school, plus money for books and living expenses.

Under the program’s “Yellow Ribbon” initiative, additional benefits are available to students paying out-of-state rates or attending private or graduate schools. The potential problem in California involved private schools.

“There was some question as to whether veterans who were attending private institutions in California were going to be eligible because of the unique nature of how California described its tuition versus its fees,” Obama said. “We just got that resolved today. This will be part of a broader effort to work out the kinks in the system.”

VA Secretary Eric Shinseki, who also took part in the White House meeting, said in a post-interview news release that the fix “will allow all veterans who want to attend a California school the same benefits as any other veteran across the nation.”

The problem stemmed from the fact that California public schools are barred from using the word “tuition” and instead must use the word “fees” when describing an institution’s cost. Therefore, a veteran attending a private college in California would have received a much lower tuition benefit under the GI Bill than veterans at private schools in other states.

The new agreement allows for the bulk of California’s “fees” to be characterized as “tuition” for the purposes of paying for the cost of private school under the Post-9/11 GI Bill.

Another kink in the new program involves the apparently inadvertent exclusion of National Guardsmen who were activated for homeland defense missions during the past eight years under the control of their state governor rather than the president. According to the National Guard Association of the United States, between 30,000 and 33,000 Guardsmen are affected.

Obama pledged Tuesday to change that, saying, “I would suggest that issues of eligibility are in a similar category [to the California tuition issue]. We want to be inclusive rather than exclusive. My general philosophy is … that somebody who’s served in uniform on behalf of our safety and security, that they should be eligible.”

He said his aides are trying to work out how to fund the fix with lawmakers on the congressional appropriations committees.