GI Bill benefits legislation

[Dill]

(05-10-2017, 04:35 PM)Au165 Wrote: Maybe, maybe not. To some the military itself is the career. I'd be interested to know how many actually utilize (meaning graduate with a degree) the GI bill, before going too deep down the rabbit hole. I think certifications in trades provided as part of military training would be an interesting substitute to post military schooling. Would an employer be more willing to higher a potential employee for a welding job, lets say that is U.S. Army certified, versus local trade school? I think the idea of coming out of the military and not needing to go back to school would be a selling point for many people who currently use the GI Bill.

I don't know the answer but I'd think there are plenty of way we could provide similar opportunities post GI bill if we needed to. We could also offer better incentives to employees for hiring veterans and disregarding the often cumbersome "degree checkbox" that many companies put in today even when the degree is not really required to do the job. TO be perfectly honest, I think we are an over degreed and under qualified work force as is because of the "degree checkbox" culture we have grown in to.

There is already a considerable interface between the private sector and separating military. Employers know that welders and truck drivers and mechanics coming out of the military are WAY ahead of students coming out of vocational schools. They also know that many Navy and Air Force veterans have computer, avionics and electronics skills--years of on the job experience. Many also have leadership skills and civilians of comparative age have not had the opportunity to develop. Recruiters make this clear to potential recruits. Employers advertise on military bases even on FOBs in A-stan. So far as this incentive goes, it is certainly there.

Further, the military is not like it was 30 years ago, when it was not unusual to see soldiers in their 30s who were still Spec 4s and officers without college degrees. Now military personnel have to earn promotion points and continue up the ladder or they will not make their 20 years. In 2011, when we were out of Iraq and drawing down in A-stan, the Army was using every pretext to draw down numbers. Good soldiers with the wrong MOS could not re-enlist. The continuous "quality control" increases the quality of what will eventually be veteran labor, even for those only in for 3-6 years.

But this won't be enough incentive if we stumble into another war, as is very likely given the current commander in chief. As Oncemore, noted, even with the GI Bill and Tuition Assistance, the military had to lower standards to acquire the necessary bodies for the Iraq war (many of the same guys could not re-enlist when the war drew down).

I agree with you that our workforce may be under qualified. However, I think college education should not be all about job training (they should also general train and furnish people's minds to make the more knowledgeable people and better citizens). So theoretically it is not possible for anyone with a real college degree to be "over degreed." Here we arrive at a special problem involving the military, the Gi Bill and TA.  For profit colleges market degrees to separating military like car dealerships around military bases market cars to 18-year-old recruits with signing bonuses. They soak up their benefits and encourage them to take out loans. 60% who go that route never graduate, and many are stuck with loans.  Those who do get degrees find them almost useless, "job training" certificates for jobs that really require more.

I don't have the figures at the moment, but if I remember correctly, vets who go to real colleges (public and private) and stay in a year have about the same graduation rates as other students.  But the proportion of vets who get into real colleges is smaller than it should be--especially when we are talking about the high end brands like Ivy League schools. There are transition problems that are not well understood and addressed by colleges, though some are trying.

A final point to drop in here is that given the sophistication of modern weapons systems, especially in the AF and Navy, the military needs pretty high quality mental labor now, lots of it, the possessors of which are also in great demand in the private sector.  So the GI Bill still figures as an important recruiting tool--if you want sufficient quantities of that mental labor.