The GI Bill

President Franklin Roosevelt signed the Servicemen's Readjustment Act on June 22, 1944, to help millions of returning World War II veterans. It paid for college or job training, provided unemployment pay, and guaranteed home loans. About 7.8 million World War II veterans used its education benefits, and historians credit it with expanding the middle class and college enrollment, though Black veterans were often shut out because benefits were administered through segregated local institutions and banks.

Later versions covered Korea and Vietnam veterans, and the Montgomery GI Bill of 1984 required service members to contribute from their pay. The Post-9/11 GI Bill of 2008 is now the main program. For those with at least three years of active service since September 2001, it covers full in-state tuition at public colleges, up to a yearly cap at private schools, a monthly housing allowance, and money for books, for up to 36 months. Service members may transfer benefits to a spouse or children if they commit to more service, and the 2017 Forever GI Bill removed the deadline to use benefits for those who left service after 2013.

The Veterans Benefits Administration runs the programs and approves eligible schools. In Rudisill v. McDonough in 2024, the Supreme Court ruled that veterans with separate periods of service can use both GI Bills, up to 48 months in total. Debates focus on for-profit colleges that heavily recruit veterans, a rule that counted GI Bill money toward a limit on federal funding that Congress changed in 2021, and how to measure whether programs lead to good jobs.