Date Awarded

2013

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (Ed.D.)

Department

Education

Advisor

Pamela L. Eddy

Abstract

The Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944 (Public Law 78-346), generally referred to as the GI Bill, provided any veteran, who had served for at least 90 days from the time period of September 1940 to July 1947, paid full-time education. The original Act also called for the creation of a central agency dedicated to the administration of all veterans' benefits, which ultimately became the Veterans' Administration (VA). The GI Bill has been revamped five more times since its initial inception, with the most recent iteration, the Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act of 2008, being hailed to be potentially as powerful a social policy groundbreaking as the original GI Bill.;The purpose of this research was to conduct a study and evaluate the data regarding the use of the benefits of the Post-9/11 GI Bill by veterans and active duty military college students. The overarching research question was: What are the Tidewater Community College (TCC) veteran and current active-duty military member/reservist perceptions of the Post-9/11 GI Bill and does their usage of benefits align with the federal policy goals of recruitment, retention, and rewarding our military members for their service?;An analysis of the results of the online survey showed that of the three federal policy goals, retention of quality personnel and the feeling of reward for military service were being met through the perception of TCC student veterans. While the Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits were not a primary recruitment reason for the majority of respondents, most felt that the Act would aid in future military recruitment. This research also found that Post-9/11 GI Bill users were using their benefits primarily for degree attainment and increased job opportunities. Military students appeared to be positively using educational swirl in order to alleviate the 36-month time limits and to continue receiving their living stipend. Specifically, they were attending more than one institution concurrently and/or in series because they were driven to complete their degree as efficiently as possible.;Dissatisfaction exists, mainly with the implementation of the policy, time limitations on usage, and changes to the living stipend payments. This dissatisfaction may be the main reasons those eligible are not using the Post-9/11 GI Bill. Other reasons for current non-use that should be explored further include the possibilities that students are waiting to use their Post-9/11 benefits after other federal monies have been used, and they may have already depleted their GI Bill benefits. Modifications to alleviate students' perceived issues could ultimately increase the attainment of the Post-9/11 federal policy goals of recruitment, retention, and rewarding military members for their service.

DOI

https://dx.doi.org/doi:10.25774/w4-smq8-6n68

Rights

© The Author

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