After World War II congress laid out plans for a controversial new plan to assist returning veterans transition into civilian life. The plan included education and training, loan guaranties for home purchases and unemployment pay. The Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, or the GI Bill of Rights, was passed by Franklin D. Roosevelt in June 1944. In 1984 the GI Bill was again revamped, this time by Congressman Gillespie V. "Sonny" Montgomery, to ensure that a younger generation of combat veterans would receive benefits for education and home loans. This bill has since been known as the Montgomery GI Bill. The Post 9/11 Veterans Education Assistance Act was enacted in 2008, providing veterans who have active duty service on or after September 11, 2001, enhanced education benefits, a living allowance, money for books and the ability to transfer unused educational benefits to dependants.
The Post 9/11 GI Bill provides a level of benefits never before seen by veterans. Prior to this new bill education benefits paid a monthly set allowance directly to the veteran, which often did not not cover the full cost of tuition and fees, and certainly could not cover the cost of housing and books. When the act was passed on June 30th, 2008, thousands of veterans and active duty military cheered. Young soldiers still at war looked to a brighter future with the opportunity to get a college education with not just tuition and fees paid for, but housing and books as well. The Veterans Affairs Education Department was so overworked that first year that they had to hire an additional 750 employees and require mandatory overtime to accomodate the influx of requests. The response from veterans was unequalled for any benefit programs offered to date.
As with the original GI Bill, the Post 9/11 GI Bill almost did not get passed. President George W. Bush wanted the bill to include transferability benefits to make the bill more valuable to career military who wanted to fund a spouse's or a child's education. Though it underwent several revisions, it was approved by a 92-6 Senate vote in favor of the final version of the bill that passed the Post 9/11 GI Bill into law.
The act provides for a monthly living allowance, equal to E-5 Basic Assistance for Housing pay, which, for its inception year of 2009, equaled an average of $1,333. The act also provided a seperate pay for tuition and fees according to a sliding scale based on the time of active duty service and a book allowance of up to $1000 per year.
Not all veterans qualify for the Post 9/11 GI Bill benefits, as it requires, at minimum, an aggregate of 90 days of active duty service on or after September 11, 2001. Other benefits available for those not qualifying for the Post 9/11 bill are the Montgomery GI Bill-Active Duty and Selected Reserve, Reserve Educational Assistance Program and Veterans Educational Assistance Program. For non-traditional students taking entirely distance education courses or students enrolled in certificate programs, the Post 9/11 GI Bill may not be the best choice. The Veterans Affairs counselor at the school of choice would be most helpful in determining the programs that the service member or veteran qualifies for that would yield the most benefits for that course of study.