 |
This is from cameraman extraordinaire Brendan Kennedy, fresh from a shoot with former Secretary of State Colin Powell:
This morning I woke up at six and got all gussied up to shoot a speech given by Colin Powell. To be more precise, I’ve been working on a segment about the GI Bill, which, if you have no idea (like me), gives veterans money to go to school. A new version of the bill was just presented to the House today.
But this is where it gets depressing --
While the student vets we've been talking to about the current bill have been totally inspiring, the fact that most of these kids come back from Iraq and Afghanistan and can't afford to go to college is not only infuriating but downright embarrassing.
After WWII, the GI Bill paid for the college of the vet's choice, books, and room and board. Today the GI Bill now barely gives vets enough to go to community college, let alone pay rent and go to a four-year college, whether public or private. The budget is frighteningly low. And if you have a family to help support? Forget it!
Plenty of people right now enjoy telling you to “support our troops.” But I’m really glad that there are actually some people looking to the future of our troops once they’ve returned home -- people like Sen. Jim Webb, Gen. Colin Powell, and Rep. Patrick Murphy -- and trying to fix an antiquated system that does anything but give troops the hand they deserve.
Comments