Battling for a Diploma

Veterans using the benefit are taking on multiple jobs, crashing with Mom and Dad, putting tuition on credit cards and taking out student loans to make ends meet, advocates say. "You have these soldiers coming back, and they want to go to school as a way to decompress, and they're having to work two to three jobs to make it," says Patrick Campbell, legislative director at the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America.

Campbell was a combat medic in the National Guard in Iraq and now works full time while using the GI Bill to attend law school full time at Catholic University, a route that for many veterans would be simply too overwhelming. "You're either going to get a full-time job or go live on Mama's couch and go to school. And you don't want to live on Mama's couch after a year overseas," he says.

Both bills under consideration in Congress would eliminate the $1,200-contribution requirement and increase the benefit to reflect the cost of schooling today. Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Iraq veteran Rep. Patrick Murphy (D-Pa.) introduced legislation in May that would provide for full tuition, fees, books, and room and board for eight semesters. A similar bill, introduced in January by Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.), a former Marine and Navy secretary, would also offer veterans full tuition and housing. In addition, Webb's bill includes a monthly stipend of $1,000 and increases the amount of time veterans have to use their benefit from 10 to 15 years after discharge.

Updating the GI Bill, Webb says, is a cost of war. "If you're not going to take care of people you send to war, don't send them to war," he says. But, he argues, it's a cost with a clear return. He cited a 2007 government report that concluded that World War II veterans who took advantage of their educational benefits had higher earnings, lower rates of post-traumatic stress disorder and an easier time readjusting to civilian life than those who did not. "You don't lose money when you pour it into people's heads," Webb says.

In recruiting offices nationwide, however, a different scenario is playing out. Slick advertising brochures highlight a $72,900 college benefit, an amount that most recruits will not be eligible for because it factors in bonuses reserved for enlistees with special skills or those who commit to jobs that are difficult to fill. But the message seems to work. A 2004 survey commissioned by the Army found that educational benefits were the most common reason cited by young adults for considering enlistment.

The benefits are what sold Edwin Cadena, 23. As a senior at Westfield High School in Chantilly, Cadena had his sights set on college. With high grades and a résumé full of extracurricular activities such as soccer, track and salsa dancing, Cadena was admitted to the University of Virginia. Just one thing stood in his way -- money.

So instead, with his college acceptance letter in hand, Cadena signed on a different dotted line. He enlisted in the Marine Corps and, for four years, served as an amphibious assault vehicle commander. Cadena deployed to Fallujah, Iraq, in 2005 and, with limited infantry in the area, found himself patrolling streets and knocking on doors in search of machine guns, artillery rounds and materials insurgents use to produce improvised explosive devices, or IEDs. He once watched an explosion engulf troops just 500 feet from him. Another time, a roadside bomb detonated next to his vehicle, leaving him unconscious.

Even so, Cadena figured his benefits from the GI Bill would help make his service worthwhile. But when his service was up, Cadena realized he still wouldn't have enough money to attend U-Va., even with in-state tuition. Today, Cadena gets about $1,200 a month from the GI Bill. He lives with his parents to save on rent and has a part-time job making $12 an hour scanning and entering forms into corporate databases. Even with Northern Virginia Community College's comparatively low tuition of about $1,100 a semester, Cadena can't afford to get a place of his own. Once he finishes his associate's degree next spring, he hopes to transfer to one of Virginia's public four-year universities, where he'll likely pay at least three times as much in tuition alone.

"The college money was primarily the reason why I joined," he says. But "every year college tuition goes up and up. So every month you can get that money, and it's worth less and less."

Michelle Diament is a freelance writer. She can be reached at michellediament@gmail.com.