On Dec. 17, GW student veterans traveled to the U.S. Capitol to observe a ceremonial signing with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi for the Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Improvements Act of 2010. The legislation offers a number of increased resources for veterans, including expanded coverage to student veterans who served in the National Guard, housing allowances for distance learners and improved vocational training.
President Barack Obama is expected to sign the bill before the end of the year.
For GW — which has one of the largest veteran populations of any nonprofit university— the reforms will provide financial aid each year to each of the 480 veterans using the benefit at GW.
The new bill also eliminates the Post-9/11 GI Bill’s 50-state formula for determining base benefits, which previously left the District with one of the lowest base rates in the country. Now, the District will receive the new national rate of assistance of $17,500—$10,000 more than the previous rate. This new national rate will offer additional assistance to GW student veterans. The original Post-9/11 Bill provides approximately $78 billion in tuition assistance.
"We are so pleased that the House and Senate have acted to improve the Post 9/11 GI Bill for hundreds of thousands of student veterans around the country,” says GW Presidential Administrative Fellow Brian Hawthorne, a staff sergeant in the United States Army Reserve and a member of the Student Veterans of America’s board of directors. “GW veterans will now have a significantly expanded and simpler benefit so they can focus on what is important: graduating and continuing to lead our nation forward.”
GW advocated for the legislation on multiple fronts. President Steven Knapp wrote letters to GW alumni and local members of Congress in support of the House version of the bill and university staff worked with a broad coalition of associations, universities and veterans service organizations to press for the legislation.
More than 260 GW student veterans are also taking advantage of the Yellow Ribbon Program, part of the GI Bill passed after 9/11, which provides returning veterans with enhanced access to private colleges and universities.
One of the leading participants in the program, GW has budgeted up to $2.8 million for the program in 2010-11, which will be matched by the Department of Veterans Affairs. Veterans who qualify for GW’s Yellow Ribbon Program receive about a 71 percent discount on full-time graduate tuition and a free undergraduate education.