Veteran Education

James G. Fausone

Veteran Disability Lawyer

As a Schoolcraft College Trustee, I receive the magazine Trustee Quarterly.   The following article from the Summer 2012 issue is from VA Secretary Shinseki’s speech to a College Trustee Convention this summer.  It’s worth reading this short passage:

A Call To Action

Community colleges can also serve as catalysts for another dramatic change in the fabric of the nation — that of military veterans returning to the homefront and the workforce. U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki urged community college leaders to support the 950,000 veterans and family members currently enrolled in higher education programs, more than one-third of whom attend community colleges. "This is an important moment in our nation's history," he said. "The education opportunities available to veterans can make a huge difference — certainly in their lives, but also the future of our nation."

"I want to ask more of you," the retired Army general said, urging community college leaders to provide meeting spaces and other services that would allow veterans to support each other as they adjust to their post-military lives. "Embrace our veteran students, and encourage them to organize themselves."

"There is a transition. They can help each other," Shinseki said. "Have them seize the collective responsibility of graduating each other."

In its third year, the current GI Bill is the largest since the original bill created at the end of World War II, according to Shinseki. It has been expanded to include nondegree programs, and one-third of all beneficiaries are attending community colleges. Shinseki credited institutions like Lansing Community College in Michigan, which offers a military medic program that provides a fast-track to becoming paramedics or nurses, and Ohio's Cuyahoga Community College, which opened a distance learning lab at a VA hospital.

"Given a chance, veterans will prevail as your best students," Shinseki told attendees. "[They] have what it takes to succeed not just in the military, but in school and in whatever endeavor they choose."