The Montgomery GI Bill is a U.S. legislation that provided benefits to World War II veterans. Through the Veterans Administration (VA), the bill provided grants for school and college tuition, low-interest mortgage and small-business loans, job training, hiring privileges, and unemployment payments. Amendments to the act provided for full disability coverage and the construction of additional VA hospitals. Later legislation extended the benefits to all who had served in the armed forces. The Montgomery GI Bill is a US federal legislation creating a comprehensive package of benefits, particularly financial assistance with higher education, for veterans of US military service. This has proved highly successful.
The first GI Bill was proposed during WW II in an attempt to avoid the recession that followed WW I when millions of veterans returned home to face unemployment. Pres Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Bill, officially known as the Serviceman’s Readjustment Act, on 22 June 1944. It offered to veterans a proportion of college tuition fees and other educational costs. Other benefits included mortgage subsidies, helping veterans to buy homes with relative ease.The bill addressed these and other problems by providing six benefits, the first three of which were administered by the Veterans Administration (VA).
* Education and training
* Loan guarantees for a home, farm, or business
* Unemployment pay of $20 per week for up to fifty-two weeks
* Job-location assistance
* Building materials for VA hospitals as a priority
* Military review of dishonorable discharges
The program was used by 2.2 million to enter higher education. The Bill made a college education attainable by veterans of any class, race, or religion—something that had previously been the preserve of America’s upper classes. Following the end of the Vietnam War and the cessation of the military draft in 1973, the number of volunteers for the military declined. In 1984 Sonny Montgomery proposed a GI Bill to encourage military service even in times of peace. The Montgomery GI Bill allows servicemen and -women to contribute to a program which allows them educational benefits after they are discharged.
The GI Bill, in both its versions, is widely regarded as a success. Senator Daniel K. Inouye (D-Haw.) has called it the most significant legislation passed by Congress in the twentieth century. Over the years the program has cost $70 billion; Senator Dale Bumpers (D-Ark.) considers it to be the best single investment the federal government has ever made. Military recruiters routinely promote its benefits as a way to attract and enlist the best and brightest young adults: in 1996, 95 percent of new armed services recruits were high school graduates, and in 1995, 95 percent of eligible recruits chose to enroll in the education program. And the GI Bill more than pays for itself: a 1986 Congressional Research Office study indicated that for every dollar invested in the GI Bill, the country recoups between $5.00 and $12.50, the result of increased taxes paid by veterans who have achieved higher incomes made possible by a college education.
Will any one still have interest in the G.I. Bill? Long ago, I remember when we would often hear of it continuously, its crazy how things have changed. Today it seems that you don’t hear it marketed on the tv and radio like it used to be.
Really does any one still have affinity for the G.I. Bill? I could recall a time when we would more often than not, hear of it all the time, years ago.. today it seems that you don’t even hear it used on the tv and radio like it was previously. Is it not searched as an inducement to enlist in the military services?