The Reserve Component gets screwed, again.
Oct. 3rd, 2009 11:42 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pecuniumYesterday I got my, "Certificate of Eligibility" for the GI Bill.
No surprise I am eligible. I did 416 days of Active Duty since 11 Sep 2001, and so I am entitled to 60 percent of the full benefit. So far so good. It's what they said they were going to give me, and it's what they delivered. Mostly.
The deal, as explained was, 60 percent of the cost of tuition at the most expensive school in the state you live, and 60 percent of $1,000, per school year, for books, and 60 percent of the Basic Allowance for Housing for an E5; living in the zip-code of the school being attended (so if I live in SF, and go to Cal State East Bay, I don't get SF BAH, I get Oakland; I can see that).
Which means, mmy tuition for a community college, ought to be covered? It's a whole lot less than the 1,700 my certificate says I am eligble for.
Nope. Seems the way the GI Bill was written, I am only entitled to 60 percent of my tuition covered; up to a maximum of 60 percent of the cost of attending a UC.
So I owe my school 40 percent of my tuition; even though the full cost is less than a quarter of what I could be collecting.
The reason this screws the Reserves is that; with the exception of those people who were in the service on 11 Sep 2001, and left the service before 11 Sep 2004, the only people this is biting is National Guard, and Reserve (Army/Marines/Navy/Air Force).
It's bullshit. Why? Because a reservist who spends 14 months deployed is in a lot tougher spot than a someone who spent 36 months stateside in the Active Army. Yes, it is that stark a difference.
If you are in an M-Day (i.e. reserve) slot, you are away from home when you get deployed. I know units who spent 12 months at Dugway Proving Grounds. They had all the financial hardships of not being able to maintain a business, lost money from pay differentials, time away from home/family (and some couldn't afford the money to arrange for visits, to the only thing which made it better than Afghanistan, or Iraq, was the sense of dread every time the news came on wasn't quite the same for the families).
But no. The reserves are second class. The money is budgeted, but it's not all going to be spent. A lot of people are doing just what I did; figuring out where to go based on the idea they could eliminate, or at least reduce, the amount of the gap between what was owed to them, and what the school cost.
I'd love to be at a UC studying Geology. Hah. I'm luckier than many. I am single. I have no dependents, no mortgage. I didn't have to file bankruptcy when my business folded because I was deployed. I am also a returning student. That's a big hurdle. Go look to see what money is available for grants and scholarships. The vast majority are limited to high-school students.
So making up the couple of thousand bucks required to cover the 60 percent gap, harder. I was looking at CalState schools because they are just as good (with the usual caveats of looking at the school) as the UC, when it comes to education (though not the reputation), and I was expecting to be able to cover pretty much everything, by way of tuition, from the GI Bill.
I earned it. I spent 416 days away from home. I had people trying to kill me. I did long hours, in uncomfortable surroundings. I have a permanent condition as a result. I know guys who lost businesses, homes, marriages.
And to save a few bucks some penny-pinching politician decided to screw us over?
The best part... they are patting themselves on the back, and getting all sort of praise for this, because the screwing over is quiet. It's lost in the fine print. I am able to go back to school because of this. So they can point to all the good it does; and who is to gainsay them?
But they're being cheap. It's pulling a Tommy on us, and it sucks.
You talk o' better food for us, an' schools, an' fires, an' all:
We'll wait for extry rations if you treat us rational.
Don't mess about the cook-room slops, but prove it to our face
The Widow's Uniform is not the soldier-man's disgrace.
For it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Chuck him out, the brute!"
But it's "Saviour of 'is country" when the guns begin to shoot;
An' it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' anything you please;
An' Tommy ain't a bloomin' fool -- you bet that Tommy sees!
No surprise I am eligible. I did 416 days of Active Duty since 11 Sep 2001, and so I am entitled to 60 percent of the full benefit. So far so good. It's what they said they were going to give me, and it's what they delivered. Mostly.
The deal, as explained was, 60 percent of the cost of tuition at the most expensive school in the state you live, and 60 percent of $1,000, per school year, for books, and 60 percent of the Basic Allowance for Housing for an E5; living in the zip-code of the school being attended (so if I live in SF, and go to Cal State East Bay, I don't get SF BAH, I get Oakland; I can see that).
Which means, mmy tuition for a community college, ought to be covered? It's a whole lot less than the 1,700 my certificate says I am eligble for.
Nope. Seems the way the GI Bill was written, I am only entitled to 60 percent of my tuition covered; up to a maximum of 60 percent of the cost of attending a UC.
So I owe my school 40 percent of my tuition; even though the full cost is less than a quarter of what I could be collecting.
The reason this screws the Reserves is that; with the exception of those people who were in the service on 11 Sep 2001, and left the service before 11 Sep 2004, the only people this is biting is National Guard, and Reserve (Army/Marines/Navy/Air Force).
It's bullshit. Why? Because a reservist who spends 14 months deployed is in a lot tougher spot than a someone who spent 36 months stateside in the Active Army. Yes, it is that stark a difference.
If you are in an M-Day (i.e. reserve) slot, you are away from home when you get deployed. I know units who spent 12 months at Dugway Proving Grounds. They had all the financial hardships of not being able to maintain a business, lost money from pay differentials, time away from home/family (and some couldn't afford the money to arrange for visits, to the only thing which made it better than Afghanistan, or Iraq, was the sense of dread every time the news came on wasn't quite the same for the families).
But no. The reserves are second class. The money is budgeted, but it's not all going to be spent. A lot of people are doing just what I did; figuring out where to go based on the idea they could eliminate, or at least reduce, the amount of the gap between what was owed to them, and what the school cost.
I'd love to be at a UC studying Geology. Hah. I'm luckier than many. I am single. I have no dependents, no mortgage. I didn't have to file bankruptcy when my business folded because I was deployed. I am also a returning student. That's a big hurdle. Go look to see what money is available for grants and scholarships. The vast majority are limited to high-school students.
So making up the couple of thousand bucks required to cover the 60 percent gap, harder. I was looking at CalState schools because they are just as good (with the usual caveats of looking at the school) as the UC, when it comes to education (though not the reputation), and I was expecting to be able to cover pretty much everything, by way of tuition, from the GI Bill.
I earned it. I spent 416 days away from home. I had people trying to kill me. I did long hours, in uncomfortable surroundings. I have a permanent condition as a result. I know guys who lost businesses, homes, marriages.
And to save a few bucks some penny-pinching politician decided to screw us over?
The best part... they are patting themselves on the back, and getting all sort of praise for this, because the screwing over is quiet. It's lost in the fine print. I am able to go back to school because of this. So they can point to all the good it does; and who is to gainsay them?
But they're being cheap. It's pulling a Tommy on us, and it sucks.
You talk o' better food for us, an' schools, an' fires, an' all:
We'll wait for extry rations if you treat us rational.
Don't mess about the cook-room slops, but prove it to our face
The Widow's Uniform is not the soldier-man's disgrace.
For it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Chuck him out, the brute!"
But it's "Saviour of 'is country" when the guns begin to shoot;
An' it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' anything you please;
An' Tommy ain't a bloomin' fool -- you bet that Tommy sees!
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no subject
Date: 2009-10-03 07:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-10-03 08:03 pm (UTC)O there'll surely come a day/When they'll give you all your pay ...
Date: 2009-10-05 03:12 am (UTC)I would I posessed a congresscritter of my own; their office would be seeing my happy smiling face about this one, and me in the Do Not Even Think To Mess With Me Suit, at that.
no subject
Date: 2009-10-05 02:08 pm (UTC)Too bad John Warner retired.