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GI Bill Benefit Update:
The new "Post 9/11 GI Bill" will soon be heading for the
President's desk. This new benefit will give service members and
veterans who have served on active-duty since Sept. 11, 2001, a new
education benefits package worth up to roughly $3,000 a month. The
same legislation includes a change to the current Montgomery GI Bill
that will increase the monthly payment to $1,321 a month -- a total
benefit of more than $47,000. The new law also enables service
members to transfer their GI Bill benefit to their dependents.
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Veterans For Education has a special salute for Rafal and Marcin
Kaminski. Two outstanding Rutgers Graduates & Veteran For Education
members who were recently deployed to Iraq.
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House Passes New GI Bill/ Senate to Vote This Week
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Despite the surprise defeat of the war supplemental funding package
in the House last week, the VFW-backed GI Bill did pass in a
separate vote by 256-166. This week, the Senate is expected to take
up its version of the war supplemental - possibly Tuesday or
Wednesday.
Please contact your Senators and urge them to include S. 22 in
the War Supplemental - this language provides a GI Bill much like
the WWII comprehensive education package. VFW has made this a
priority goal. We are so close, but we need your help. Call your
Senators today - tell them to vote YES in support of this GI Bill,
S. 22. It is the right thing to do for today and tomorrow's
veterans!
Use this link to find contact information for your Senators:
http://capwiz.com/vfw/dbq/officials/
VFW WASHINGTON WEEKLY
May 19, 2008
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Veterans take to the road to send comrades to college
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on image for complete story |
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Veterans take to the road to send comrades to college
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http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/index.ssf?/base/news-13/1210394189247350.xml&coll=1 |
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Saturday, May 10, 2008 BY RUDY LARINI Star-Ledger Staff When William
D. Brown Jr. and Efren Cazales set out on a 65-mile run from Camden
to New Brunswick last weekend, they were thinking more about the
plight of war veterans than their own fitness. Brown and Cazales,
both students at Rutgers University in Camden and veterans of the
war in Iraq, made the run in support of helping veterans attend
college once they leave the military.They are not alone in their
quest. A bipartisan coalition in Congress is pressing for an update
of the GI Bill, which has eroded over the years as college costs
have skyrocketed.
On Monday, the issue will come to a head, with the proposal
tucked into a war-spending bill that President Bush has vowed to
veto after voicing concerns about its cost. "We want more veterans
in college, because we believe they've earned that right," Brown
said. "American men and women who've served their country honorably
deserve the benefits that a college education offers." The new
measure, sponsored by Sen. James Webb (D-Va.), a Vietnam War
veteran, is intended to make the existing Mongomery GI Bill more
realistic in a 21st-century economy.
The original GI Bill, signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt
in 1944, was a pre-eminent economic and social stimulant in the
aftermath of World War II, sending some 8 million American veterans
to college and spawning a vast middle class. But the new Montgomery
GI Bill, enacted in 1984 under the sponsorship of a Mississippi
congressman named Gillespie V. "Sonny" Montgomery, pays just
two-thirds of the average cost of four years at a public college and
less than half the cost of a private school. The original post-World
War II bill covered all college costs and provided a monthly living
allowance. "The Montgomery GI Bill was created for a peacetime
military and right now it is inadequate," said Kimberly Hunter,
Webb's press secretary. Webb's bill, co-sponsored by more than half
of the Senate, including Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), and
two-thirds of the House, would make veterans with three years of
active duty eligible for the full cost of the most expensive state
college in their home state. It would also enhance benefits for
reservists and National Guard members who enjoy limited coverage
under the existing GI Bill. Critics contend it would be too costly,
unwieldy to administer and hurt military retention, encouraging
service men and women to leave the ranks for college.
An alternative proposal, sponsored by Sen. John McCain, among
others, and supported by the Pentagon and the White House, would
provide a more modest increase in GI Bill benefits for veterans. The
alternative measure would require at least six years of service,
critics argue, and favors career military. Supporters of Webb's
bill, with an estimated annual cost of $2.5 billion to $4 billion,
argue it would be a powerful recruitment incentive and should be
regarded as an investment in veterans' and America's future. The
original GI Bill, Hunter noted, returned $7 in economic benefits for
every $1 spent."This isn't a cost; this is an investment," said
Andrew Roberts, a spokesman for the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of
America, an advocacy group for troops and veterans of the two
wars.Roberts said the GI Bill reforms are needed to help war
veterans better acclimate to civilian life."No one comes back from
Iraq or Afghanistan unchanged," Roberts said. "This bill will allow
them to fully integrate into society. We see the new GI Bill as an
excellent tool for re-integration."It seems like the least we can do
for these guys who are coming back," Roberts added.
Two New Jersey lawmakers, state Sen. Jack Adler (D-Camden) and
Assemblyman Jack Conners (D-Camden), are sponsoring a New Jersey GI
Bill that would stretch the value of any improvement in federal
benefits by capping the cost of tuition at any state college at $50
per credit. Brown and Cazales are expected to appear before the
Assembly's Military and Veterans' Affairs Committee Monday to speak
on behalf of the measure.
During their run, the pair raised about $8,500 for a veterans'
scholarship fund at Rutgers-Camden that will be administered by the
school's alumni association. Brown said the idea for the run was
borrowed from a fellow Navy seal who after returning from Iraq ran a
135-mile "ultrathon" through Death Valley to raise money for
families of veterans killed in Iraq."Hopefully by making a little
sacrifice and showing a positive commitment, we can help make a
change," said Brown, 30. He and Cazales, 24, left Camden Saturday
morning and arrived at their destination -- the statue of William
the Silent on the College Avenue campus of Rutgers University in New
Brunswick -- some 11 1/2 hours later.He said there never was any
doubt he and Cazales would finish.
"We were really committed to the cause, and we had come too far
to quit," he said. "There was nothing in the world that was going to
stop us."
Rudy Larini may be reached at rlarini@starledger.com or at (973)
392-4253. Donations to the Rutgers-Camden veterans' scholarship fund
can be made online at http://www.veterans4education.org or by mail
to the Rutgers University Foundation -- Rutgers Alumni Scholarship
for Veterans Fund, Rutgers-Camden, Office of Development, 411 Cooper
Street, 2nd Floor, Camden, N.J. 08102.
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2 seeking to raise awareness for veterans' education
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Saturday May 03, 2008, 7:15 AM
Two students at Rutgers University in Camden - both veterans of
the war in Iraq - are hitting the road today for a 65-mile run
from Camden to New Brunswick to raise money and awareness in
support of helping veterans attain college degrees after leaving
the military.
"We tell everybody we talk to this is why we're doing this,"
said William Dennis Brown of Mount Laurel. "We want more
veterans in college because we believe they've earned that
right. American men and women who've served their country
honorably deserve the benefits that a college education offers."
Brown, a 30-year-old Navy SEAL who served in Iraq from 2004 to
2005, and Efren Cazales, 24, of Bridgeton, an Army veteran who
spent a year in Iraq, are soliciting donations for their effort
on the website,
veterans4education.org, of the Veterans for Education club
at the Rutgers-Camden campus. Proceeds will be used for a
veterans' scholarship fund at the college.
Brown and Cazales also are hoping to raise awareness of efforts
to make the existing G.I. Bill more realistic in a 21st Century
economy. Various measures are floating in Congress, including
one passed by a House committee last week, that would increase
the monthly stipend veterans who have graduated high school
would receive to attend college.
Brown and Cazales will leave the Rutgers-Camden campus after a
9:30 a.m. ceremony at the Robeson Library and follow a route
along Route 130 to New Brunswick, hoping to attract crowd
support as they pass through dozens of towns along the way.
The run will end 12 to 13 hours later at the statue of William
the Silent on the College Avenue campus green at Rutgers in New
Brunswick, a site chosen for its symbolism, Brown said.
"We're not going to be silent any more about inadequate
educational benefits for veterans," he said.
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He'd like to see government foot bill
By MELISSA HAYES Burlington County Times
http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/112-05072008-1530412.html
William Dennis Brown Jr. said he's extremely sore and his feet are
so swollen that his shoes don't fit, but that doesn't matter to him.
The 30-year-old Mount Laurel resident and former Navy SEAL ran 65
miles from Rutgers University's campus in Camden to the school's
campus in New Brunswick along with fellow veteran Efren Cazales on
Saturday.
Both men are students at Rutgers-Camden, and both belong to
Veterans for Education, a student organization co-founded by Brown
that has created a scholarship fund for veterans and active military
members. While the run helped raise money for the scholarship, the
primary objective was to make a statement to legislators that
improved funding of college educations for veterans should be a
priority, said Brown, who served in Iraq in 2004 and 2005.
The GI Bill, which provides educational funding to veterans,
barely covers 50 percent of Brown's tuition at Rutgers, he said.
However, members of the National Guard receive free college
educations, he said.
Brown and Cazales will head to Trenton on Monday to testify on
proposed legislation that would provide improved higher-education
benefits for veterans.
"Young men and women coming back really put out a lot for our
country, and I really think we should help them transition, and one
of the ways is through education," he said.
Brown said the knowledge that they were helping veterans
motivated him and Cazales to complete the run, which took nearly 11½
hours. They received support along the way from the state police,
various emergency squads and others.
"I'll never do it again, but I think it was worth it," he said.
The men have raised $8,000 toward the scholarship.
To make a donation, visit http://veterans4education.org.
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We Did It!
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On May 3rd at 9:40pm, William Brown and Efren Cazales finished their
65 mile run from Rutgers Camden. They started their run at 10:15am
and ran for a total of 11 hours and 30 minutes. They finished at the
statue of William The Silent at Rutgers - New Brunswick
See Photos |
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Other Past Events:
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