G. I. Bill and American Education

While the Servicemen's Readjustment Act wasn't the first "G. I. Bill" to be passed by the U.S. Congress, in terms of its wide-ranging impact on American public life, it was certainly the most significant. This article discusses the impact of the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, commonly known as the G. I. Bill, on American society and the lives of returning World War II veterans. The law, administered through the U.S. Veteran's Administration, proved enormously successful in staving off an anticipated postwar recession or depression and igniting the U.S. postwar economy. It also helped grow the suburbs and dramatically increase the college graduation rate. Hoping to repeat the success of the 1944 G. I. Bill, Congress acted in the 1952 Veterans' Adjustment Act and the 1966 Veterans Readjustment Benefits Act for Korean War and Vietnam War veterans, respectively. Following the abolition of the military draft in 1973, The Veterans Education Assistance Program (VEAP) was established in 1976 and ran until 1987. The current incarnation of the G. I. Bill, signed into law in 1985, is known as the Montgomery G. I. Bill.

Keywords American Legion; Bonus March of 1932; G. I. Bill; Montgomery G. I. Bill; Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944; U.S. Veteran's Administration; Veterans Readjustment Benefits Act of 1966; Veterans' Adjustment Act of 1952; Veterans Education Assistance Program

Overview

While most equate the G. I. Bill with World War II veterans, the reality is that Americans have a long history of providing for their veterans. Initially these benefits were for injured soldiers. Beginning in 1636, long before the United States existed, the leaders of the Plymouth Colony decreed that they would take care of soldiers injured in the war with the neighboring Pequot Indians. The Continental Congress made the same promise in 1776 to encourage colonists to enlist in the war against the British. Abraham Lincoln, in his second inaugural address in March 1865, spoke about the American pledge toward disabled veterans and their families. "To care for him who shall have borne the battle, and his widow and orphan" (Lincoln, 1865, as cited in "G I Bill," n.d., par. 3). Congress acted on these words once again during World War I, passing comprehensive benefits for disabled veterans. Since 1930, the benefits have been administered by the Veterans Administration. ("GI Bill," n.d.).

The Making of the G. I. Bill

One of the catalysts for the passage of the G. I. Bill of 1944 was the Bonus March of 1932. In 1924, Congress gave "bonus" certificates to World War I veterans. Though the certificates were worth $1,000, akin to a U.S. savings bond, they couldn't be cashed until 1945. When the Great Depression began with the stock market crash of 1929, many millions of Americans - including hundreds of thousands of veterans - found themselves out of work and unable to provide for their families. This desperate situation sparked riots and protests across the country, as workers demanded relief from the state and federal governments. Meanwhile in 1932, the World War I veterans, who were in possession of bonus certificates worth $1,000 per person, marched on Washington demanding early payment. Journalist Joseph C. Harsch described the march and the marchers this way:

This was not a revolutionary situation. This was a bunch of people in great distress wanting help.... These were simply veterans from World War I who were out of luck, out of money, and wanted to get their bonus -- and they needed the money at that moment (as cited in "The Bonus March," n.d.).

The Bonus March

The veterans set up camp, military-style, in tents and abandoned buildings in Washington, D.C., pledging not to leave until Congress passed a bill to meet their demands for early bonus payment. President Herbert Hoover vowed to veto any such legislation should it cross his desk. The number of protesting veterans swelled to 20,000 strong by June 1932 ("The Bonus March," n.d.), and they were temporarily encouraged to see the House pass the Patman Veteran's Bill, only to have their hopes dashed when the Senate failed to act in a similar fashion. Though some were lured back home when Congress promised to pay for their return trips, others stayed to continue the protest. Among the remaining protestors tempers flared, stoked by frustration and the hot Washington summer, and in July federal troops moved in to clear out the protestors from neighboring buildings and local encampments across the Anacostia River. Many hundreds of veterans were injured in the melee, and some reports indicated that a handful were killed. Many Americans supported the law enforcement officials, while the New York Times noted that "Flames rose high over the desolate Anacostia flats at midnight tonight, and a pitiful stream of refugee veterans of the World War walked out of their home of the past two months, going they knew not where" (cited in "The Bonus March," n.d.). It was the worst violence in Washington since the British burned the city during the War of 1812.

Some historians have suggested that the aftermath of the Bonus March once and for all sank the reelection prospects of President Hoover and paved the way for the election of Franklin D. Roosevelt and his promise of a New Deal for all Americans. But on the issue of paying bonuses, Hoover and Roosevelt were of one mind. With the Great Depression continuing and veterans still pressing their case to the new administration, Roosevelt attempted to placate them by giving them federal jobs building a new highway in the Florida Keys. A hurricane struck south Florida in 1935, killing over 200 veterans. As another election year, 1936, dawned, Congress finally succumbed to public pressure and gave the World War I veterans what they had long demanded - early redemption of their bonuses.

The G. I. Bill Legacy

As it turned out, the efforts of the World War I veterans made life far easier for World War II veterans. Historian Jennifer D. Keene (2001) describes the notion that military veterans could now expect a more prosperous life upon their return from service:

The GI Bill is rarely remembered as the final legacy of World War I to the nation. Yet ignoring Great War veterans' authorship of the GI Bill results in an imperfect understanding of why the law took the form it did when it did. Line by line, the most comprehensive piece of social welfare legislation the United States has ever known, it illustrated in vivid detail the struggles World War I veterans had endured to give meaning to their social contract with the state. For the first and perhaps only time, wartime military service became a steppingstone to a better life. The final legacy of World War I created one of the most prosperous, advantaged generations in American history (Keene, 2001, "Doughboys to be").

With the U.S. entering World War II late in 1941, and the American economy becoming a war economy, many business leaders and economists began predicting that the end of America's involvement in the war would bring about an economic recession or even depression. They reasoned this way because those wartime industries, which had been providing employment for millions of stateside Americans, would be slowed or even idled at the conclusion of the war. The prospect of another Great Depression and Bonus March was unpalatable to all concerned, and talk began of ways to avert a repeat occurrence.

As the war continued in both Europe and the Pacific, discussion in official Washington turned to job training and unemployment compensation for returning veterans. President Roosevelt, perhaps with still-fresh memories of the Bonus March a decade earlier, insisted in a July 1943 "fireside chat" to the nation that the country needed to do right by its veterans through unemployment insurance, job training and quality medical care. His proposals enjoyed wide support among the American people, with 70 percent telling Gallup pollsters in 1944 that they'd even pay higher taxes to support such benefits (Keene, 2001).

The 1944 G. I. Bill

With the help of the American Legion, the U.S. Congress unanimously passed the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, an omnibus bill with provisions designed to help returning World War II veterans make an easier transition back to civilian life in the United States. As former American Legion commander Harry Colmery stated during the debate on the bill, returning GIs "should be aided in reaching that place, position, or status which they had normally expected to achieve, and probably would have achieved, had their war service not interrupted their careers" (quoted in Keene, 2001, "Combat Veterans"). This is an important point, especially when one considers that the United States did not have an all-volunteer force until the military draft was banned in 1973.

The GI Bill signed into law by President Roosevelt had the following key provisions:

• Up to $500 a year for college tuition or training, paid directly to the college or university

• Unmarried veterans would get a $50-a-month allowance for each month they spent in uniform. A married veteran would get $75, and a married veteran with children would get $90.

• Mortgage subsidies that made it quite easy to buy a home

• Unemployment compensation benefits of $20 per week for up to 52 weeks

• Women and African-Americans serving in the military were also eligible

The postwar economy was far healthier than some policymakers and economists had predicted, and therefore only about 20 percent of the unemployment funds allocated were used (U.S. Dept. of Veteran's Affairs, n.d.). Returning servicemen and women did take full advantage of the education and housing benefits available to them.

Further Insights

The immediate effects of the G. I. Bill were dramatic. By providing money for college, the seats in American colleges and universities were filled with returning veterans.

Education Opportunities

The average veteran had finished two years of high school before going off to war (Keene, 2001), and the GI Bill let them continue their education. "By the time the original GI Bill ended on July 25, 1956, 7.8 million of 16 million World War II veterans had participated in an education or training program" (U.S. Dept. of Veteran's Affairs, n.d.). Contrary to what seemed to be a general misperception, especially among female veterans (Oakes, 2006, p. 27), the GI Bill was also intended to help those who had been in college or university before they went overseas to fight.

Bennett (1996) reported that 88,000 veterans were enrolled in 1945. By the fall of 1946 their numbers had jumped to 1,013,000. Enrollment in colleges and universities increased from 1.6 million in 1945 to 2.1 million students in 1946. More than one million or 48.7 percent of the 2,078,095 students and 71.5 percent of all the males enrolled in universities and colleges were veterans (Bennett, 1996). Harvard University's enrollment almost doubled in 1946. As veterans continued to enroll over the next five years, the total enrollments in colleges and universities continued to increase. The deadline for vets to enroll was July 15, 1951. The number of graduating seniors in higher education jumped from around 160,000 in 1940 to around 500,000 ten years later. This increase is especially interesting considering that only a quarter of a century earlier the total number of degrees awarded (to primarily wealthy young men) in the United States was 53,515 (Bennett, 1996) (cited in Oakes, 2006, p. 26).

Other Opportunities

In addition to educational opportunities, the Bill allowed more returning GIs to buy homes, helping them flee to the suburbs and escape some of the problems afflicting American cities. The loans, which were given out through 1962, totaled over $50 billion ("Veterans Benefit History," 2005). Because of lingering prejudice, however, many of African-American veterans were not given the chance to buy homes in the suburbs, and they tended to remain in cities with their families.

By the time the G. I. Bill expired in 1956, it had profoundly impacted the American educational and economic landscape. Home ownership rates rose. The suburbs grew. College graduation rates increased. In a very real sense, it led to America's postwar economic prosperity, the birth of the Baby Boom Generation, and the "white flight" from the inner cities that continues to have wide socioeconomic and political consequences. Humes (2006) summed up the 1944 G. I. Bill's impact:

A nation of renters would become a nation of homeowners. College would be transformed from an elite bastion to a middle class entitlement. Suburbia would be born amid the clatter of bulldozers and the smell of new asphalt linking it all together. Inner cities would collapse. The Cold War would find its warriors not in the trenches or the barracks, but at the laboratory and the wind tunnel and the drafting board. Educations would be made possible for fourteen future Nobel Prize winners, three Supreme Court justices, three presidents, a dozen senators, two dozen Pulitzer Prize winners, 238,000 teachers, 91,000 scientists, 67,000 doctors, 450,000 engineers, 240,000 accountants, 17,000 journalists, 22,000 dentists - along with a million lawyers, nurses, businessmen, artists, actors, writers, pilots and others (Humes, 2006).

Given this enormous impact, the conclusion that the 1944 G. I. Bill has had "more impact on the American way of life than any law since the Homestead Act more than a century ago" ("GI Bill," n.d.) seems entirely plausible.

Other G. I. Bills Since 1944

The 1944 G. I. Bill was not the last. In July 1952, in the midst of the Korean War, President Dwight D. Eisenhower - himself a former general who led American forces in Europe during World War II - signed into law the Veterans' Adjustment Act, which was similar to the 1944 G. I. Bill but did not pay unemployment benefits. Also, unlike the G. I. Bill, which paid benefits directly to colleges and universities, it instead offered veterans $110 per month for the purpose of paying the costs of higher education until 1965. The reason for the change was a 1950 House select committee investigation that found that some colleges and universities were price gouging. Over a million Korean War veterans took advantage of home loan programs under the legislation.

As the Vietnam War heated up in 1966, Congress again passed G. I. Bill legislation aimed at helping returning soldiers reintegrate into American society. This time the legislation was much broader than that of the 1944 G. I. Bill or the 1952 Veterans' Adjustment Act. The Veterans Readjustment Benefits Acts of 1966 extended benefits for veterans who served in and out of conflict zones, as well as during peacetime and war. This idea of providing wartime and peacetime personnel serving in the armed forces the same benefits was similar to a proposal rejected by President Eisenhower in 1959 after the government's Bradley Commission said military service was not to be a means to secure government handouts. President Lydon B. Johnson, forced by the bill's unanimous passage by Congress, signed it into law in 1966.

Still, the law did not provide the same scope of benefits as the 1944 and 1952 laws did. It provided only $100 per month for education for honorably discharged veterans, which many critics said was insufficient. However, Congress, acting three separate times during the next decade, increased the monthly education benefit to $311 per month by 1977. In the end, 66 percent (6.8 of 10.3 million) of Vietnam era veterans took advantage of the education benefits available to them. By comparison, the education benefits in the bill were used by 2.4 of the 5.5 million (40 percent) eligible Korean War veterans under the 1952 G. I. Bill.

Benefits for a Volunteer Military

After the draft was abolished in 1973, the U.S. military became an all-volunteer force. The Veterans Education Assistance Program (VEAP) was established in 1977 and ran until 1987. Unlike previous G. I. Bills passed in 1944, 1952 and 1966, VEAP allowed voluntary deductions of up to $2,700 that would be matched $2 for every $1 through the Veteran's Administration, rather than paying a monthly education benefit. Veterans who contributed between 1977 and 1987 remain eligible to apply for matching funds for higher education.

Beginning in July 1985, the Montgomery G. I. Bill (MGIB) allows current active soldiers to put aside $100 per month in their first year of military service. Then, when they leave service, they get a tuition allowance and monthly stipend for up to 36 months of job training, distance education or classroom education. As of 2007, that monthly stipend was $1,101 a month for full-time college attendance. There are also benefits packages for part-time students and reservists.

At the end of 2007, there were moves to update the Montgomery G. I. Bill (Salemme, 2007, pp. 51-52). The Veterans Education Assistance Act, or Post-9/11 G. I. Bill, was passed in 2008. It provides up to 36 months financial support for education to honorably discharged veterans. In 2013, the Department of Veteran Affairs reported that since mid-2009 it had paid more than $23.6 billion in benefits to more than 860,000 veterans, servicemembers, and dependents. In the fall of 2012, more than 470,000 veterans enrolled in 3,630 institutions. The bill covers both graduate and undergraduate degree programs, as well as vocational and technical training, including flight training, correspondence training, licensing programs and national testing programs, and entrepreneurship training (Reynolds, 2013).

Viewpoints

The G. I. Bill & American Culture

While the 1944 G. I. Bill transformed the American economy and the American higher education system, it also had a trickle-down effect on American culture.

Humes (2006) lists the many artists, novelists, poets, actors, and other creative talents who were educated and trained through the G. I. Bill, including Gore Vidal, Norman Mailer, Joseph Heller, Frank McCourt, Art Buchwald, Pete Hamill, Edward Abbey, Elmore Leonard, Mario Puzo. Poets James Dickey, James Wright, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Randall Jarrell, Frank O'Hara, Anthony Hecht, Richard Wilbur, A.R. Ammons. Stage and screen writers Paddy Chayevsky, Rod Serling, Aaron Spelling, Terry Southern. Actors Walter Matthau, Robert Duvall, Tony Curtis, Harry Belafonte, Rod Steiger, Gene Hackman, Clint Eastwood, Paul Newman, Jason Robards, Charles Bronson, Ernest Borgnine. Artists Robert Rauschenberg, Leo Krikorian, Dan Spiegle, Robert Miles Runyan, Kenneth Noland, LeRoy Nieman, Richard Callner, Ed Rossbach, Robert Perine (Humes, 2006).

The G. I. Bill & Women

One of the underreported impacts of the G. I. Bill was the way it led, for a time, to the re-segregation of American society along gender lines. While during World War II millions of men were fighting overseas, the women who were left stateside began to take the college and career slots that were left vacant. However, in the wake of the G. I. Bill, all that changed. Feminist writer Betty Friedan in her 1963 The Feminine Mystique observed,

When the war ended, of course, GI's came back to take the jobs and fill the seats in colleges and universities that for a while had been occupied largely by girls. For a short time, competition was keen and the resurgence of the old anti-feminine prejudices in business and the professions made it difficult for a girl to keep or advance in a job. This undoubtedly sent many women scurrying for the cover of marriage and home (Friedan, 1963, p. 185, as cited in Oakes, 2006, p. 26).

While feminism made a comeback in the 1960s and 1970s, it has taken women considerable time to regain even a portion of the ground they gained when the men of the "greatest generation" were at war.

Terms & Concepts

American Legion: A U.S. veterans organization founded in 1919 and dedicated to the advocating on behalf of veterans. A major mover behind the passage of the 1944 G. I. Bill.

Bonus March of 1932: An act of civil disobedience that took place in 1932 when World War I veterans, who were in possession of bonus certificates worth $1,000 per person that would become payable in 1945, marched on Washington demanding early payment.

G. I. Bill: A popular name for the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944. It was also been applied to subsequent military benefit bills passed in 1952, 1966 and 1985. Sometimes it is referred to as the G. I. Bill of Rights.

Montgomery G. I. Bill: A federal G. I. Bil law passed in 1985 that allows current active soldiers to put aside $100 per month for their first year of military service. Then, when they leave service, they get a tuition allowance and monthly stipend for up to 36 months of job training, distance education or classroom education.

Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944: Popularly known as the "G. I. Bill," it provided government-paid benefits for college tuition, job training, mortgage subsidies and unemployment.

U.S. Veteran's Administration: The department of the federal government tasked with administering veteran's benefit programs.

Veterans' Adjustment Act of 1952: Federal G. I. Bill legislation that, in addition to mortgage subsidies, offered veterans $110 per month for the purpose of paying the costs of higher education until 1965.

Veterans Education Assistance Program: A G. I. Bill that allowed active duty military personnel to voluntarily contribute up to $2700 for educational purposes, and the money would be matched $2 for every $1 through the Veteran's Administration, rather than paying a monthly education benefit. Veterans who contributed between 1977 and 1987 remain eligible to apply for matching funds for higher education.

Veterans Readjustment Benefits Act of 1966: A federal G. I. Bill that extended benefits for veterans who served in and out of conflict zones, and during peacetime and war.

Bibliography

G I Bill. (n.d.). Retrieved December 15, 2007 from Medal of Honor website http://www.medalofhonor.com/GIBill.htm.

Humes, E. (2006). Nixon and Kennedy, Bonnie and Clyde: The G. I. Bill and the arts. Adapted from Over Here: How the G. I. Bill Transformed the American Dream (2006). Harcourt. Retrieved December 15, 2007 from CaliforniaAuthors.com: http://www.californiaauthors.com/excerpt-humes-3.shtml.

Keene, J. D. (2001). Doughboys, the Great War and the Remaking of America. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press. Excerpt retrieved December 15, 2007 from the Doughboy Center: http://www.worldwar1.com/dbc/j%5fkeene.htm.

McChesney, J. (2007, September 26). G. I. Bill's impact slipping in recent years. NPR's Morning

McChesney, J. (2007, September 26). G. I. Bill's impact slipping in recent years. NPR's Morning Edition [audio]. Retrieved December 14, 2007 from NPR: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=14715263.

Oakes, J.W. (2006). How the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944 (GI Bill) impacted women artists' career opportunities. Visual Culture & Gender, 1. 23-31. Retrieved December 15, 2007 from CyberFeminist House: http://146.186.186.74/vcg/1vol/oakes.pdf.

Olson, K.W. (1973). The G. I. Bill and higher education: Success and surprise. American Quarterly, 25 pp. 596-610.

Reynolds, C. V. (2013). From combat to campus. Chronicle of Higher Education, 21-26. Retrieved December 15, 2013, from EBSCO Online Database Education Research Complete. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ehh&AN=85944556&site=ehost-live

Salemme, E. (2007). Fighting for a diploma. Time, 170 , 51-52. Retrieved December 16, 2007, from EBSCO online database, Academic Search Premier http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=26260548&site=ehost-live

Sander, L. (2013). Veterans tell elite colleges: 'We belong'. (cover story). Chronicle of Higher Education, 59, A1-A7. Retrieved December 15, 2013, from EBSCO Online Database Education Research Complete. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ehh&AN=84680218&site=ehost-live

The Bonus March (May-July, 1932). (n.d.). In American Experience: MacArthur. Retrieved December15, 2007, from PBS: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/macarthur/peopleevents/pandeAMEX89.html.

U.S. Department of Veteran's Affairs. (n.d.). Born of controversy: The GI Bill of Rights. GI-BILL History. Retrieved December 15, 2077 from GI Bill website: http://www.gibill.va.gov/GI%5fBill%5fInfo/history.htm.

Wurster, K.G., Rinaldi, A.P., Woods, T.S., & Liu, W. (2013). First-generation student veterans: Implications of poverty for psychotherapy. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 69, 127-137. Retrieved December 15, 2013, from EBSCO Online Database Education Research Complete. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ehh&AN=84637542&site=ehost-live

Suggested Reading

Gates, B, Sr., & Collins, C. (2004, June 21). A GI Bill for the next generation. Houston Chronicle. Retrieved December 15, 2007 from Faireconomy.org: http://www.faireconomy.org/press/2004/GIBill%5foped.html.

Humes, E. (2006). Over here: How the G. I. Bill transformed the American dream. New York: Harcourt.

Mettler, S. (2005). Soldiers to citizens: The G. I. Bill and the making of the greatest generation. New York: Oxford University Press.