After serving in the Navy in World War II, Marylander Charles Schelberg was able to attend Washington College in Chestertown thanks to the GI Bill, which covered all his costs. Mr. Schelberg, who hailed from a working-class family of Chesapeake Bay watermen, was the first in his family to attend college and earned an economics degree that led to a successful career in community banking.
There were millions of Charles Schelbergs after World War II, and the individual success of each one fed the cumulative success of a nation that shrugged off the economic malaise of the Great Depression and stoked the economic engines of the world's most vibrant economy. America took care of its deserving warriors, and the nation benefited greatly.
When today's military veterans return home from their nightmarish tours of combat duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, many nurture dreams of earning a college degree, just as many of their grandparents did after serving in World War II.
Unfortunately, the nation is not responding to their service as it did in Charles Schelberg's day.
Two of Mr. Schelberg's grandsons have answered their country's call. Charles did so after the attack on Pearl Harbor; Matthew and James Schelberg did so after the attacks of 9/11. The brothers both served as Marines in Iraq's Anbar province. They are back home now, and both are pursuing college degrees - under circumstances that underscore the educational challenges facing contemporary veterans.
Today's combat veterans encounter a GI Bill whose stinginess would have been unimaginable to their grandparents. It is sad to chart how far it has fallen and how inadequate are its current benefits. Gone are the glory days of the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944 (the formal name of the GI Bill), which enabled millions of servicemen back from World War II to enter the hitherto largely inaccessible world of higher education. The GI Bill helped make the "Greatest Generation" great, paving the way for prosperity and the postwar boom years and permanently lowering the barriers to American higher education. Nearly 8 million veterans filled the nation's classrooms thanks to its benefits.
Yes, the GI Bill still exists, although in a different form now known as the "Montgomery GI Bill," and it still offers education benefits. But today's version makes education benefits a voluntary, contributory program; to receive any tuition benefits from Uncle Sam, you must have agreed in advance to a monthly deduction from your meager paycheck. Worse yet, the benefit is just a fraction of what is needed to meet today's tuition costs. Reservists who have returned from the battlefield earn even less than enlisted soldiers.
