Durbin: GI Bill With Improved Educational Benefits Now Law

Press Release

Durbin: GI Bill With Improved Educational Benefits Now Law

Soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan will soon receive educational benefits comparable in quality to those received by World War II veterans, U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) announced today. The upgraded benefits are included in the new GI bill signed into law yesterday by the President.

"Our country has never gone wrong when it invests in education benefits for our veterans," Durbin said. "The World War II GI Bill allowed a generation of returning veterans to go to college. They used their education to build a solid middle class, which sparked economic growth and expansion across the nation. This bill has the potential to do the same."

The new GI Bill will:

* Modernize education benefits by fully covering the cost of any in-state college's tuition and fees for any member of the military who has served on active duty for 3 years or more since 9/11. Under the current Montgomery GI Bill, the maximum tuition benefit is $1,101/month and $9,909/year.

* Increase educational benefits to all service members who have served since 9/11, including activated reservists and members of the National Guard, who do not receive the same level of benefits as active duty members under the current Montgomery GI bill.

* Provide monthly stipends for housing. No housing stipend is included under the current Montgomery GI Bill.

* Offer educational assistance in proportion to the total length of active duty service, for members who have served on active duty for less than 36 months.

* Provide a dollar-for-dollar match to any college that chooses to help veterans pay for tuition over the in-state tuition cap.

* Increase the amount of time veterans have to use the GI Bill's educational benefits.

* Allow career service members to transfer their unused educational benefits to family members, which is limited under the current Montgomery GI Bill.

Durbin said he is particularly proud that the new GI Bill puts Reserve and National Guard veterans on the same benefit level as regular, full-time armed service members for the first time. More than 1.7 million have served in the military since Sept. 11, 2001. Of those, about 483,000 have served in the Reserve and the National Guard.

"This summer, Illinois will see the largest deployment of its National Guard since World War II. More than 2,700 Illinois National Guard members will deploy to Afghanistan, where they will help train the Afghan National Army and the Afghan National Police. When they come back home, under the new GI bill, the opportunity to attend college will be waiting for them," Durbin said.

The new GI bill won the support of every major veterans service organization including: the Veterans of Foreign Wars(VFW), Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA), The American Legion, the Military Officers'Association of America (MOAA), Vietnam Veterans of America (VVA), AMVETS, the Air Force Sergeants Association (AFSA), the Enlisted Association of the National Guard of the United States (EANGUS), the Student Veterans of America (SVA), the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC), the National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges (NASULGC) and the Partnership for Veterans' Education, a consortium of military, veterans, and higher education associations such as the American Council on Education (ACE) and the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities (NAICU).

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