G.I. Bill
The G.I. Bill, officially known as the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, was a landmark piece of legislation aimed at supporting veterans returning from World War II and later military conflicts. Named after the term "government issue," it provided a comprehensive array of benefits, including financial assistance for higher education, vocational training, and home loans. The bill was a response to the challenges faced by veterans after World War I, aiming to prevent a similar neglect and economic downturn by facilitating veterans’ reintegration into civilian life.
Upon its enactment, the G.I. Bill significantly expanded access to education, with millions of veterans utilizing its provisions, leading to a dramatic increase in college enrollments. It also stimulated the housing market by supporting home loans, contributing to the postwar suburban expansion. While it achieved substantial success in enhancing educational opportunities and improving the economic status of veterans, it faced criticism for not addressing broader needs such as healthcare and family support. Overall, the G.I. Bill exemplified the potential for federal initiatives to foster social and economic mobility, impacting millions of lives and reshaping American society.
G.I. Bill
Identification Federal law providing war veterans with readjustment benefits such as unemployment compensation, loan guarantees for purchases of homes, farms, and businesses, and tuition and subsistence for education and training
Also Known As Servicemen’s Readjustment Act; G.I. Bill of Rights
Date Signed into law on June 22, 1944
The U.S. Congress enacted this legislation to help the nation reabsorb millions of veterans returning home after fighting in World War II. Passage of the law showed that lawmakers had learned from the mistakes made by the U.S. government in the way World War I veterans had been treated.
The G.I. Bill put higher education within the reach of millions of veterans of World War II and later military conflicts. Taking its name, “G.I.” from “government issue,” a term used by soldiers, the law created a comprehensive package of benefits designed to help veterans readjust to civilian life. The bill boosted American confidence and changed the way individuals lived, worked, and learned.
HarryW. Colmery, a former national commander of the American Legion and former Republican National Party chairman, is credited with drawing up the first draft of the G.I. Bill. It was introduced in the House on January 10, 1944, and in the Senate the following day. Both chambers approved their own versions of the bill. However, the bill almost died when Senate and House members met to iron out differences between their versions of the new legislation. Both groups agreed on the need for education and home loan benefits but were deadlocked on the bill’s provisions for unemployment insurance. Finally, Representative John Gibson of Georgia cast the tie-breaking vote. The Senate approved the final form of the bill on June 12, and the House followed the next day. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed it into law on June 22, 1944. When Roosevelt signed the G.I. Bill, he remarked that the bill substantially carried out most of the recommendations he had made in a speech on July 28, 1943, and in his messages to Congress later that same year.
Provisions of the Law
The Veterans Administration (VA) was responsible for carrying out the law’s key provisions. Through the VA, the bill provided financial aid for veterans’ hospitals; school and college tuition; building of and building materials for VA hospitals; for purchases of homes, farms, and businesses; low-interest mortgages and small-business loans; job training; job relocation assistance; special hiring privileges; and cash stipends to unemployed veterans of twenty dollars per week for fifty-two weeks. It also had a provision for reviewing veterans’ dishonorable discharges from the services. Although veterans eagerly embraced the bill’s education and loan benefits, few collected on one of the bill’s most controversial provisions—unemployment pay. Less than 20 percent of funds set aside for the purpose were used for unemployment benefits.
The central purpose of the G.I. Bill was to do a better job of helping veterans return home from war than had been done after the conclusion of World War I in 1918. Veterans were so shamefully neglected after that war that thousands of them would eventually march on the nation’s capital to demand the government keep the promises it had made to them. The end of World War I also brought an economic slowdown that legislators did not want to see repeated after World War II. Assisting veterans to improve their educations, get jobs, and become homeowners were seen as ways to help avert an economic slump.
Educational Benefits
After the G.I. Bill was signed into law, veterans began receiving grants for higher education and vocational training, mortgage loan guarantees, and cash payments for those who were unemployed. In providing help for more than 3.5 million home mortgages, the bill was instrumental in encouraging the rapid growth of suburbia after 1945. Between 1944 and 1952, the VA backed nearly 2.4 million home loans. During its peak year, 1947, about 40 percent of all housing starts in the nation were funded by loans made under the G.I. Bill.
About 7,800,000 World War II veterans—more than one-half of all veterans eligible for the bill’s educational benefits—eventually used them to help restart their civilian careers. The resulting boost in new college students helped postwar college enrollments to swell by 70 percent over prewar levels. By 1947, almost half of all college students were military veterans. New facilities had to be constructed to accommodate expanding enrollments.
The increasing numbers of veterans in higher education also helped bring other kinds of changes to college and university campuses. New types of programs evolved that were geared more to the vocational and professional needs of the veterans. A primary reason for the program’s success was the flexibility that it gave to veterans, who were allowed to spend their tuition money on a wide range of options. Many veterans became some of the most academically successful of all college students during the late 1940’s. Moreover, their presence on college campuses provided proof that colleges and universities were no longer the exclusive preserves of the sons and daughters of the elite.
One of the initial projections between the G.I. Bill that proved wrong was the expectation that a larger proportion of returning veterans would want to enter the job market immediately. Only a few hundred thousand veterans were expected to opt for higher education. Instead, more than 1 million of them enrolled in institutions of higher education in both 1946 and 1947, and more than 900,000 more enrolled in 1948. These veterans took very active roles in college. Many of them joined fraternal groups and neighborhood and community organizations and got involved in local politics.
Impact
Despite its clear successes, the G.I. Bill also had its failures. In contrast to similar legislation in Canada and European nations, it did not address broader domestic agenda that would have provided fuller health care, child care, job training and education to members of the families of veterans and their survivors. Nevertheless, the nation earned back many times its investment, through increased tax revenues of better educated and more prosperous veterans.
The G.I. Bill proved the ability of the federal government could promote social and economic advancement through educational attainment and training, and changed and empowered the lives of millions of veterans following the completion of their military service. The successes of the G.I. Bill encouraged legislators to create educational opportunities for individuals in these groups as a means of redressing past social and economic inequities.
Bibliography
Ballard, Jack Stokes. The Shock of Peace: Military and Economic Demobilization After World War II. Washington, D.C.: University Press of America, 1983. Well-researched narration of U.S. demobilization efforts during and after World War II. Places the G.I. Bill in context with other readjustment measures.
Blum, John Morton. V Was for Victory: Politics and American Culture During World War II. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1976. Excellent account of mobilization on the home front. Discusses the G.I. Bill in the light of congressional politics, the weakening of New Deal reforms, and Roosevelt’s 1944 “Economic Bill of Rights.”
Greenberg, Milton. The G.I. Bill: The Law That Changed America. Foreword by Bob Dole. New York: Lickle, 1997. Companion volume to a documentary aired on public television; explains the broad effects of the G.I. Bill—both intended and unintended—in American history.
Mettler, Suzanne. Soldiers to Citizens: The G.I. Bill and the Making of the Greatest Generation. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. Focuses on the role of the G.I. Bill in shaping the economy, culture, and identity of Americans in the decades following World War II.
Olson, Keith W. The G.I. Bill, the Veterans, and the Colleges. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1974. Excellent study of educational aspects of the G.I. Bill, with topical chapters.
Ross, Davis R. B. Preparing for Ulysses: Politics and Veterans During World War II. New York: Columbia University Press, 1969. Comprehensive analysis of veterans’ benefits, including mustering-out pay, the G.I. Bill, demobilization, reconversion, and housing.
Severo, Richard, and Lewis Milford. The Wages of War: When America’s Soldiers Came Home—from Valley Forge to Vietnam. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1989. Comprehensive review of the postwar treatment of military veterans over the sweep of U.S. history, helping to place the exceptional positive case of World War II veterans in proper historical perspective.