These Schools Reaching Out For Military Vets Have Brilliant Recruiting Departments

[longknife]

by Allison Churchill @ These Schools Reaching Out For Military Vets Have Brilliant Recruiting Departments - Business Insider


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Military College

For some veterans, transitioning from military service to college life is a bigger challenge than they expected.

The wheels of the VA churn slowly, making payments a bit late. Post-traumatic stress disorder can make it hard to pay attention to classes. Many veterans have been halfway around the world before their classmates even left their hometowns.

But a growing number of universities are trying to make life easier for veteran students. The Associated Press reported on a writing workshop for veterans at George Washington University. The two-day seminar aims to teach former service members the therapeutic qualities of writing. But it's hardly the most comprehensive program out there.

At Arizona State University, a doctoral student surveyed student veterans on what programs they needed, and the school ran with her results. Vets told Dana Weber they wanted their own place, somewhere they could go and be around people with similar experiences. They said they wanted a class to help them learn how to take advantage of the school's resources.

In response, ASU built the Pat Tillman Veterans Center on its Tempe campus, putting student and academic support in one place. It also started offering a special orientation class for transitioning veterans.

Another school reaching out to veterans is University of Tampa. Along with also offering a veteran-specific orientation, the college accepts transfer credits from several of the schools troops often take online classes through, such as Central Texas College. The university gives credit for military training and experience. And it also waives the application fee for veterans.

All of these schools made G.I. Jobs magazine's Military Friendly School list, now in its fourth year.

Getting an education on the Post 9/11 G.I. Bill should be a great opportunity for veterans. With a little research, the benefits of college can definitely outweigh the negatives. \

Enough Spent on Welfare Programs in 2011 to Write Every Poor Household a $59,523 Check

by Debbie Right Truth: Enough Spent on Welfare Programs in 2011 to Write Every Poor Household a $59,523 Check

(CNSNews.com) – The federal government spent enough money on federal means-tested welfare programs to have sent each impoverished household a check for nearly $60,000, according to figures from the Census Bureau and the Congressional Research Service (CRS).

According to a report from the CRS produced for Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), $1 trillion was spent on federal welfare programs during fiscal year 2011 – with $746 billion in federal funds and $254 in state matching funds.
The U.S. Census Bureau reported that there were approximately 16.8 million households living below the federal poverty level of $23,000 per year for a family of four in 2011. ( See:* 2011 Households Below Poverty 2011.pdf )
If each of the estimated 16.8 million households with income below the poverty level were to have received an equal share of the total welfare spending for fiscal year 2011, they each would have received $59,523.

 

[waltky]

Military yankin' the rug out from underneath student veterans...

Army suspends tuition assistance program for troops
March 8, 2013 — The Army announced Friday it is suspending its tuition assistance program for soldiers newly enrolling in classes due to sequestration and other budgetary pressures.

“This suspension is necessary given the significant budget execution challenges caused by the combined effects of a possible year-long continuing resolution and sequestration,” Paul Prince, an army personnel spokesman at the Pentagon, wrote in an email to Stars and Stripes. “The Army understands the impacts of this action and will re-evaluate should the budgetary situation improve.” The Army’s announcement follows a similar move by the Marine Corps.

The Army’s tuition assistance program was available for troops to complete a high school diploma, certificate program or college or master’s degree. Under the program, the Army paid 100 percent of the tuition and authorized fees charged by a school up to established limits of $250 per semester hour or credit hour or up to $4,500 per fiscal year. “The Secretary of the Army has approved the suspension of Tuition Assistance effective 5 p.m. (Eastern Time) on March 8, 2013. Soldiers will no longer be permitted to submit new requests for Tuition Assistance,” read a statement posted Friday on the GoArmyEd.com website. “However, Soldiers currently enrolled in courses approved for Tuition Assistance are not affected, and will be allowed to complete current course enrollment(s). “This change in the Army Tuition Assistance program applies to all Soldiers, including the Army National Guard and Army Reserves,” the statement read.

Student Veterans of America on Friday blasted the decision, saying the move could hurt troops’ post military careers and leave them in debt. "It is utterly unacceptable that the first casualties of Congress' inability to act are education benefits for servicemembers,” Michael Dakduk, executive director of SVA, said in a statement. “The decisions of the U.S. Marine Corps and the U.S. Army set a dangerous precedent that educating our nation's servicemembers and veterans is an expendable option.”

Prior to the official announcement, messages about the suspension were circulating on various Facebook pages and on University of Maryland University College Europe’s webpage. Frustrations were evident on GoArmyEd’s Facebook page on Friday. “Wouldn’t one think that GoArmyEd would have sent a mass e-mail to everyone enrolled instead of a few people here and there? I haven’t gotten anything from my chain of command, GoArmyEd, or my school!,” read one post. Others expressed concern about remaining college requirements or how the suspension will affect the enlisted promotion system, where civilian education is valued and rewarded.

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Marines halt new enrollments in tuition assistance programs; other services could follow
March 5, 2013 WASHINGTON – Some Marines are scrambling to find ways to pay for classes after a surprise announcement that the Marine Corps has stopped new enrollments in its tuition assistance program.

The program was available for active-duty Marines attending high school completion courses, vocational courses or classes toward an associate, bachelor, master or doctorate degree after hours. It provided up to $4,500 per fiscal year, or $250 per semester hour or credit hour, according to a Marine Corps website.

An administrative message published Saturday for all Navy and Marine Corps personnel from Navy Secretary Ray Mabus noted that one of the impacts of the across-the-board budget cuts known as sequestration would be to “cease new USMC enrollments in voluntary education tuition assistance.” But Marines already using the program said they were informed that their assistance also would be cut off after the current semester and that they should meet with guidance counselors for information about scholarships and grants.

Marine Corps officials did not answer inquiries from Stars and Stripes seeking clarification about whether students enrolled in education programs will be able to get assistance for next semester. The cuts do not impact the G.I. Bill. Michael Dakduk, executive director of Student Veterans of America, said the tuition assistance program was important to him while he was in the Marine Corps. “This benefit helped me attain the coursework necessary to successfully transition from combat to college and eventually complete my baccalaureate degree,” Dakduk said.

The cancellation of the program “is especially troubling given the number of Marines expected to leave active service in the coming years and the incredible value placed on higher education in today’s job market,” he said. The Marines may not be the only service to make the change. On Tuesday, the Defense Department comptroller released guidance that suggested all services consider “significant reductions in funding new tuition assistance applicants ... for the duration of the current fiscal situation.”

Source

 

[Oldguy]

College was sure a difficult transition for me. I literally went from the bush in Vietnam to a classroom in less than a week and you can imagine how that played out. I never felt so isolated and different!

And, there were....um,...let's say...events which were quite embarrassing.

For instance, I was sitting at my desk in government class one day concentrating on the lecture and taking notes, when a low flying jet passed over the campus. Apparently, it came from the other side of the building, so I didn't hear it until it was right overhead. In that first fraction of a second, my mind heard it as an incoming 122mm rocket and I headed for the floor instinctively. Unfortunately, I was sitting in one of those wrap around desks and all I managed to do was lurch across the floor dragging the desk with me and scattering books.

They say silence is golden. If that's the case, the silence in that classroom was 24 K.

 

[waltky]

Air Force climbs on the bandwagon...

Air Force joins Army, Marines in cutting tuition assistance
March 12, 2013 - The Air Force has joined the Marines and the Army in dropping tuition assistance due to sweeping federal budget cuts.

Word of the decision began reaching airmen in the Pacific on Tuesday morning. During a commander’s call at Yokota Air Base, 374th Airlift Wing commander Col. Mark August told airmen that applications for tuition assistance submitted after March 12 likely would be rejected by the Air Force. “I suggest you call and see where your application’s at,” he said. Because the Air Force is also strictly limiting TDY, professional education at the service’s Non-Commissioned Officer Academy and Squadron Officer School, would also be limited, he said. Commanders would likely have to limit and prioritize airmen scheduled to attend those schools, August said.

At Ramstein Air Base in Germany, phones at the education center were busy Tuesday morning with callers ranging from the distressed to those in disbelief asking: “What do you mean, I can’t apply?” “It has been probably one of the craziest mornings of my career,” said Keith Davis, the chief of education and training at Ramstein, who fielded some of those phone calls. “It has been unbelievable.” The official message that the Air Force was suspending all new requests for tuition assistance effective immediately, came out “stateside time yesterday,” Davis said Tuesday. “We pushed an email out this morning from the education center,” informing airmen of the change, Davis said.

By the time airmen woke up Tuesday morning in Germany, they were shut out from submitting new requests for tuition assistance through the Air Force Portal. A message on the application site says in red letters: “Air Force Military Tuition Assistance Currently Not Available.” Capt. Nicholas Plante, an Air Force spokesman at the Pentagon, said Tuesday that Secretary of the Air Force Michael Donley made the decision at about 5 p.m. Washington time Monday to suspend military tuition assistance. The service’s education offices were promptly notified, and the Air Force planned to put out a statement Tuesday on its web site, Official Site of the U.S. Air Force - Home, Plante said.

Sequestration, he said, is having “devastating effects” on readiness, mobilization and the workforce. “We have to make difficult choices to preserve those types of things.” Plante said the suspension applies to all components, including the Air Force Reserve and Air National Guard on extended active duty orders. Last week, the Army and the Marines announced similar moves and the Navy was expected also to announce changes to its tuition assistance program. As of Monday, airmen are not permitted to submit new requests for tuition assistance, Plante said. Airmen currently enrolled in approved courses are not affected, he said and are allowed to complete them. Applications from airmen submitted before the suspension but not yet approved will be processed normally, Plante said. The Air Force will evaluate the program in coming months, he said.

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Cuts could affect Army's mental health providers, limit soldiers' access to care
March 12, 2013 WASHINGTON — The Army could lose a large chunk of its mental health force to furloughs starting next month, limiting access to care for soldiers dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder and other issues.

Although the Surgeon General’s office is looking at ways to exempt some personnel from the sequestration fallout, “right now the plan is that our [Department of the Army] civilians who are employed with us will be impacted across the board,” Col. Rebecca Porter, chief of behavioral health for the surgeon general, told defense reporters Tuesday at a breakfast roundtable. More than half of the Army’s 4,500 mental health professionals are civilian. Contractors are exempt from furloughs, but those civilians employed directly by the Army are subject to the cuts imposed by sequestration. About 251,000 Army civilians will have to take 22 days of unpaid leave from April 26 to Sept. 30. “It’s not the quality of the care that we expect to be impacted but the availability and access to it in a timely manner,” Porter said.

That’s something the Army already struggles with. Wait times for mental health providers have been a significant problem at installations across the service, leading the Army to double the number of mental health providers in the last five years – and the service is still understaffed. Last month Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ray Odierno told Congress that sequestration means the Army will have to decrease its number of mental health providers, reversing the service’s concerted hiring efforts. Porter said to mitigate the impact of sequestration and maintain access to care, Army Surgeon General Lt. Gen. Patricia D. Horoho has prioritized behavioral health, along with wounded warrior care, primary care and the disability evaluation system.

Porter said her office is approaching sequestration in a “measured and deliberate way,” analyzing usage data to aim cuts at less busy facilities and exploring the option of temporarily assigning uniformed providers to fill in at the affected facilities. Civilians play a key role in the Army’s mental health programs. One of the service’s newest initiatives is to embed providers directly with brigades. Each battalion has its own provider based with them, who is familiar with the commanders, noncommissioned officers and training cycle of the unit. That kind of close proximity of care proved successful in a pilot program at Fort Carson, and the concept is set to be service wide by fiscal year 2016, Porter said.

Those embedded teams are made up of almost entirely civilians, Porter said. The Army has worked for years to attract more mental health professionals to the service, but that effort could be undermined in the long term should shaky job security led the new recruits to look elsewhere. “If they start to go out the door, it will take us a lot longer to rebuild that force than it does for them to leak away,” Porter said. The Army has nothing to offer as incentive to stay, such as retention bonuses that were once available. Instead, Porter said, it’s just an appeal that “we’ll do everything we can to support you.”

Source

 

[longknife]

It's all political BS designed to create fear so King Barry Hussein can continue on his agenda of destroying this country!

 

[ArmyCowboy]

College was sure a difficult transition for me. I literally went from the bush in Vietnam to a classroom in less than a week and you can imagine how that played out. I never felt so isolated and different!

And, there were....um,...let's say...events which were quite embarrassing.

For instance, I was sitting at my desk in government class one day concentrating on the lecture and taking notes, when a low flying jet passed over the campus. Apparently, it came from the other side of the building, so I didn't hear it until it was right overhead. In that first fraction of a second, my mind heard it as an incoming 122mm rocket and I headed for the floor instinctively. Unfortunately, I was sitting in one of those wrap around desks and all I managed to do was lurch across the floor dragging the desk with me and scattering books.

They say silence is golden. If that's the case, the silence in that classroom was 24 K.

I had just returned from OIF2 and was at a festival at the base in Germany where I was stationed. They were having a fireworks display (of which I was unaware) and when that first firework went off I dove on the ground in the middle of the beer tent.

Not a moment I like to relive.

 

[Oldguy]

College was sure a difficult transition for me. I literally went from the bush in Vietnam to a classroom in less than a week and you can imagine how that played out. I never felt so isolated and different!

And, there were....um,...let's say...events which were quite embarrassing.

For instance, I was sitting at my desk in government class one day concentrating on the lecture and taking notes, when a low flying jet passed over the campus. Apparently, it came from the other side of the building, so I didn't hear it until it was right overhead. In that first fraction of a second, my mind heard it as an incoming 122mm rocket and I headed for the floor instinctively. Unfortunately, I was sitting in one of those wrap around desks and all I managed to do was lurch across the floor dragging the desk with me and scattering books.

They say silence is golden. If that's the case, the silence in that classroom was 24 K.

I had just returned from OIF2 and was at a festival at the base in Germany where I was stationed. They were having a fireworks display (of which I was unaware) and when that first firework went off I dove on the ground in the middle of the beer tent.

Not a moment I like to relive.

Yeah, I can imagine. But...anything done at a bier fest can't be THAT bad! LOL I slipped out early one day and went to one in Nurnberg, a civilian fest in the park next to the old Nazi stadium, and had a ball...until after quitting time and other GI's showed up. After that, it was just one fight and disturbance after another. I left disgusted with my fellow soldiers. Before the drunk GI's stared making trouble, the Germans made room for me at their long tables, put a huge glass of beer in my hand, and we all locked arms and swayed and sang with the "Oompah" bands in their lederhosen. It was fun!

But, that's not the subject, is it?

One day shortly after I got out of the Army, I was leaving a class building really early. I had a 0700 class, but we discovered a note on the door telling us the professor wouldn't be there that day, so I was headed back to the car. It was probably 0630 or 0645. The morning was still and the sun had just come up.

As I walked down the sidewalk, I noticed a very pretty girl coming at me, so I got ready to say good morning to her. Just then, some carpenters somewhere nearby suddenly started driving nails all at once. In heavy, still air of the early morning, my mind heard AK rounds. Without thinking, I dove off into the grass beside the sidewalk, landing on my face. Of course, I realized immediately what I'd done, but it was too late. The beautiful girl just stopped about 20 yards away and stared at me for a moment, then made a huge, sweeping detour out into the grass to avoid getting too close to me and double checked behind her as she ran to the door.

Well, shoot. I guess that's one girl I won't be dating anytime soon!

By the way, I hate to tell you this but it never goes away. I've hit the floor as recently as only a couple of years ago and it's been more than 40 years since Vietnam.

 

[waltky]

Backlash from suspension of tuition assistance programs for military...

Suspension of tuition assistance programs under fire from troops, educators
March 14, 2013 — The suspension of tuition assistance programs for servicemembers has sparked outrage, anxiety and despair.

Many servicemembers already enrolled in education programs are wondering how they’ll pay for their remaining courses; others wonder what the impact will be on their promotion potential with the military’s emphasis on education as a key factor in advancement.

Schools that cater to the military are reeling at the prospect of losing millions of dollars, and lawmakers are lobbying to overturn the decision by the Army, Air Force and Marines to suspend their tuition assistance programs. The Navy has not yet announced plans to curtail its program, but was expected to make an announcement soon. “My biggest concern is how it may affect promotability for soldiers at the higher ranks,” said Sgt. 1st Class Wesley Thompson, a Fort Gordon-based soldier currently serving in Afghanistan, who was just passed up for a promotion. “All the individuals in my unit who did get picked up [for promotion] all have Masters Degrees and significantly less leadership or deployment experiences than many who do not have Masters Degrees,” Thompson said. “What kind of message does that send?”

An Active Guard Reserve recruiter, who requested anonymity to avoid the appearance of speaking for his command, said it will be tougher to recruit, especially in the low-income region of Maryland where he works. “College benefits are the absolute main reason they do it, it’s going to be pretty hard,” he said. “You start wondering what else will be cut.” The cuts will likely save the government about $600 million a year and could affect more than 300,000 servicemembers, based on fiscal 2012 enrollment numbers provided by the services. The benefits have long been considered one of the unique perks of military service, particularly during a time of war.

The outcry over the discontinuation of a benefit that’s helped countless troops get their degrees without going into debt has reached Congress, with lawmakers planning bills to restore funding. A pair of senators, Kay Hagan, D-N.C., and Jim Inhofe R-Okla. will push to restore the military’s tuition assistance programs during Congress’ budget debate this week. “Though I understand that the Department of Defense has tough budget decisions to make, I believe that it is shortsighted to completely suspend this program,” Hagan wrote in a letter to Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel this week, according to a release from her office.

Possible impact on schools

 

[waltky]

Good idea...

VA reform law will push colleges to lower veteran tuition
August 26, 2014: WASHINGTON — A federal law passed earlier this month directing a massive $16.3-billion overhaul of the troubled Department of Veterans Affairs health care system also aims to put pressure on colleges to lower education costs for veterans.

The law, called the Veterans’ Access to Care through Choice, Accountability, and Transparency Act, bars the VA from paying education assistance to colleges that charge veterans more than in-state tuition rates. Typically, students who reside in the same state as their public schools are given a break on tuition but veterans who moved often during their military careers may face difficulties meeting residency requirements. The change means schools must either extend the lower tuition rates to veterans who use VA assistance or face losing revenue from the Montgomery GI Bill for active-duty forces and the new Post-9/11 GI Bill. Overcharging any one veteran would mean the loss of all VA tuition assistance payments, according to the staff of Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., an architect of the VA overhaul law.

Significant money is at stake: The VA says it has doled out more than $20 billion in benefits to 773,000 vets and their family members under the Post-9/11 GI Bill since it became effective in 2009. The law does not mandate the lower tuition, but instead gives a strong incentive for public colleges to tweak residency requirements and what they charge veterans, congressional staff members said. The approach is similar to how the federal government pushed states to create uniform age limits for alcohol consumption in the 1980s, staff said.

The National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984 requires states to prohibit anyone under 21 years old from purchasing or possessing alcohol or face losing federal highway funding, which is key to the construction and upkeep of roads and infrastructure. The new VA law went into effect Aug. 7 when it was signed by President Barack Obama. The overhaul came after months of scandal and outrage over the nationwide veteran health care system and revelations that veterans were unable to get timely appointments for treatment. The law dramatically expands veteran access to private care, adds medical staff and facilities, and streamlines the firing of VA executives found to be incompetent or guilty of manipulating patient data.

VA reform law will push colleges to lower veteran tuition - News - Stripes