05-10-2017, 05:18 PM
(05-10-2017, 04:31 PM)Au165 Wrote: Okay, and what effect did 100$ a month paid in for college have on that? Your tackling a much larger issue here, but not necessarily one that is directly tied to this one. I am specifically trying to look at the impact of pre 9/11 having to pay in for school, and post 9/11 not having to. I am curious if the buy in resulted in more people utilizing it, many believe when you have skin in the game it can act as a catalyst to using the service. Is forcing people to pay in as a way to motivate them to go a better than having an underutilized option, I don't know but it would be interesting to see utilization numbers.
Your comments above are interesting, but not really relevant to this specific question.
It's a part of a much larger issue. The Army competes for 18-22 year olds who may want to go to college or a trade school instead. Most of the recruits are from lower socioeconomic levels (particularly the Southeastern US) looking for opportunity. Why risk getting killed or suffer multi-limb and genital amputations for decreasing benefits? Charging $2400 to use your GI Bill certainly isn't going to attract a single recruit. ("I would have joined, but you lost me when you said I didn't have to pay for the GI Bill.")
But, if service members don't take advantage of the GI Bill because they didn't buy in that means that reduces the overall cost. If more service members use their GI Bill that will increase the overall costs. Because the benefits paid out exceed what the service member pays in. That's the nature of the program.
On the surface, a buy in seems like it will defray costs. But, if the buy increases the likelihood the service member utilizes the GI Bill the overall cost will be increased relative to if the service member didn't buy in and didn't use the GI Bill.
Example:
Service member A doesn't buy in. GI Bill pays out $0 dollars.
Service member B buys in for $2400. GI Bill pays out a monthly stipend for 4 years tens of thousands in excess of the original $2400 paid in. According to the online calculator I just used the post 911 GI Bill would pay 100% in state tuition for Ohio State (for example), $1227/month housing, $1000 for books annually. So the program would be -$1600 in the red for just 4 years worth of books.
