President signs into law latest GI Bill changes - Army News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Army Times

President signs into law latest GI Bill changes

President Obama has signed into law a package of changes — mostly improvements — in the Post-9/11 GI Bill.

Signed Tuesday, the law attempts to simplify the complicated process for paying what remains the most generous education benefit for veterans since World War II. It still promises full tuition, plus a living stipend and book allowance, for fulltime students taking undergraduate courses at four-year public colleges and universities. For many students, it also covers the full tuition and fees for graduate studies and for attending private colleges.

There is good news in the law.

• National Guard and reserve members will get more credit toward earning the benefit. Those on full-time active duty as part of the Active Guard and Reserve program will have their time count toward benefits, and time mobilized for homeland security missions also will count.

• The $1,000-per-year book allowance becomes available to active-duty service members and to their spouses using transferred benefits, although they will still not receive the living stipend available to other students.

• Distance learning students, who currently receive no living stipend unless they are taking at least one on-campus class, will become eligible for the monthly benefit but they will be paid a reduced rate that is one-half of the national average living stipend.

• Vocational training, including apprenticeships and on-the-job training, will become covered programs where tuition costs will be covered and living stipends also paid.

Most of the changes take effect Aug. 1.

Sen. Daniel K. Akaka, D-Hawaii, the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee chairman who used the World War II GI Bill, said the idea among the changes is to make the year-old education benefit more streamlined, less complex and more equitable.

“With the signing of this bill, young veterans will now have an easer time utilizing the education benefits they have earned,” Akaka said in a statement.

Not all of the changes are good news for student veterans.

In the name of streamlining benefits, the bill does away with the complicated process of setting a cap on tuition and fees for every state, something now based on the highest cost for in-state tuition and fees for a four-year public institution. The cap applies to how much is paid for graduate students, out-of-state students and those attending private institutions.

In place of state caps, the new law creates a single, nationwide cap of $17,500 a year for tuition and fee reimbursement, a level that could result in some students attending private colleges — whose full costs are covered now — paying out of pocket next fall.

Additionally, living stipend eligibility will be revised next fall so that only full-time students will receive a full living stipend. This is a change from the original law, which provides full living stipends for those taking enough credits to be considered more than a half-time student. Effective Aug. 1, living stipends will be pro-rated based on the number of credits taken, although anyone taking less than a 50 percent course load will remain ineligible for the payment.

Another potential shock for some students is that GI Bill benefits will be cut off between school terms, unless classes are interrupted by a national disaster or other emergency. That means that next winter, students receiving living stipends – which many students use to pay rent and other expenses – will be cut off between the fall and spring terms.