Editor’s note: The following is an opinion piece. The writer is not employed by Military Times and the views expressed here do not necessarily represent those of Military Times or its editorial staff.

Three summers ago, I was serving in the US military in one of the most dangerous places in Afghanistan. Some days, we’d fight the Taliban for 18 hours straight. And then I’d go back to the base, debrief our team and log onto the courses I was taking with an online institution that serves many members of the armed forces.

But while the American people trust us to defend our country, too many federal policymakers don’t trust us to make our own decisions about our own educations. In a continuing controversy that hits home for me, some career officials in the federal Department of Veterans Affairs have been trying to prevent veterans and service members from using their GI Bill benefits to pay for their educations at my alma mater, Ashford University.

This issue is about more than one university: These career officials seem to be predisposed against path-breaking private institutions that stress twenty-first century technologies rather than relying on teaching methods that date back to the Middle Ages.

As someone who’s proudly served in the armed forces and succeeded in civilian life thanks largely to online education, I urge these federal policymakers to look beyond any biases, review the facts and allow nontraditional colleges and universities to receive GI Bill funds so they can continue to serve students like me.

The stakes are high. By shutting off GI benefits to veterans seeking academic experiences that accommodate our busy schedules, these federal officials would disrupt the educations of many students who have served our country in the armed forces and now seek to make our fullest contributions in civilian life. Moreover, this ill-considered policy could shut down nontraditional institutions with proven records of serving nontraditional students. And that would close off educational and economic opportunities for many who deserve a fair chance to learn more and earn more.

In this economy, many adult Americans need advanced education. But only a fortunate few can afford to be full-time students in college classrooms. The rest need to find a flexible format, such as online learning, that lets them juggle the demands of work, family and education. This is especially essential for service members, who must work around frequent deployments to dangerous and often remote locations, as well as long and unpredictable hours.

My own experience shows why private, online institutions can have much to offer students with dreams and determination but little free time and limited financial resources.

For me, as for many nontraditional students, upward mobility has been an uphill struggle. Growing up in gritty East St. Louis, Illinois, I never once had a teacher or counselor ask me if I wanted to go to college. Right after high school, I joined the military to serve my county and also to get out of town and get ahead in life.

As I prepared to retire from the Navy after 20 years, having served in the SEAL teams, I explored my options. Word-of-mouth, and not aggressive marketing, as some have charged, led me to Ashford. Service members talk about nontraditional colleges and universities all the time because online learning is accessible to students anywhere, anytime through their iPhones and iPads. That is one reason why, to cite the institution with which I’m most familiar, 30 percent of Ashford’s students have been veterans, active-duty military or their dependents.

My education was rigorous, challenging, and applicable in real life. Spending plenty of late nights studying, I read every word of every reading assignment. I logged into the online class discussions, commenting on what other students said about our readings and posting my own comments. Most of my classmates took their studies seriously, and those who didn’t should assume responsibility for falling short.

While federal regulators can reduce complex questions to abstractions, I saw the human faces of this issue at my undergraduate commencement ceremony. I met many other nontraditional students – fellow veterans, experienced workers, and single parents – who were also the first in their families to complete college successfully. If our educational choices had been restricted, many of us would have had to settle for the lives to which we were born, not the lives we are building for ourselves.

American veterans are victors, not victims. We are proud to have protected our fellow citizens, and we don’t need federal regulators to protect us from ourselves.

A 20-year military veteran who served in the US Navy SEALs, Ty Smith earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Organizational Management from Ashford University and a Master’s of Business for Veterans Degree from the University of Southern California, Marshall School of Business. He is the founder and CEO of Vigilance Risk Solutions, a San Diego-based security consulting and risk mitigation company, with a focus on workplace violence prevention.

Share:
In Other News
Load More