ALERT
Adult Learning and Education Research and Trends

The “Forever GI Bill,” which contains several provisions to help modernize GI education benefits, was signed into law last week as the Harry W Colmery Educational Assistance Act of 2017 (PDF). CAEL is a proud supporter of this legislation, advocating for its passage and encouraging our partners to do the same through our higher education networks.  

First offered in 1944 to assist veterans returning from duty during World War 2, the GI Bill has helped millions of veterans buy homes, start businesses and complete degree programs. This week, the House of Representatives’ Committee on Veterans’ Affairs met to discuss changes to the bill to make taking advantage of its tuition benefits easier for veterans.

Last month, we highlighted Colorado veterans’ efforts to encourage their state to adopt a policy that would require state colleges and universities to recognize credit for prior military service. According to the Denver Post, those efforts have been successful: Colorado gov. John Hickenlooper signed a bill into law that will do precisely that.  

Military veterans and active duty servicemembers enter classrooms with a wealth of skills and knowledge before they crack open a single textbook, and though they’ve passed many tests, none were of the multiple choice variety. Through their training and service, servicemembers gain knowledge from a deep pool of subjects, including foreign languages, programming, medicine and intel.

As we give thanks to our men and women in uniform this Veterans Day, it’s important that we not only acknowledge their contributions but also the opportunities to support them as well. When it comes to helping veterans in their pursuit of a postsecondary education, institutions are taking major steps to improve veteran completion, retention, persistence and graduation rates. As the student veteran completion rate lags behind that of the general student population and the demand for highly skilled workers grows, the significance of these efforts can’t be overstated.

As Veterans Day approaches it’s fitting that we focus on efforts to help military service members and veterans gain access to postsecondary education.

In collaboration with CAEL, the Multi-State Collaborative on Military Credit (MCMC), a 13-state initiative of the Midwestern Higher Education Compact (MHEC), has recently completed an online resource, Valuing Military Learning - A Guide to Military Prior Learning Assessment and More, designed for servicemembers and veterans in the healthcare field to assist them in their transition into the civilian workforce by obtaining career credentials through prior learning assessment (PLA). The resource includes a listing of bridge programs in MCMC states which give credit for their military learning through PLA; testimonials from student veterans who have benefited from PLA; and a state-by-state listing of veteran resources.