Serving Maricopa's Veterans

Contributed by Valerie Vigil, MCC Assistant Director of Financial aid/Veterans Coordinator

The Veterans Offices at Maricopa Community Colleges are excited about the new GI Bill listed below is a summary of the New GI bill and what it will mean for the Colleges.

Sen. James Webb, D-Va., and Rep. Harry Mitchell, D-Ariz., worked as a team last spring and summer to introduce legislation that would provide educational assistance to those who’d served on active military duty on or since Sept. 11, 2001. Their main interest was to offer a GI Bill of similar value to the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944, which dramatically improved the U.S. economy and educated millions after World War II.
The Post 9/11 GI Bill will:

•  Provide “up-front” tuition vouchers directly to educational institutions veterans are attending.
•  Allow public -private institutions to match specific scholarships for tuition, improving veteran access to those institutions.  
• Deliver a monthly living stipend, based on the local cost of living, to most veterans, In Arizona that will consist of over $1100 per month
•  Provide a book allowance of $1,000 per year. 
• Allow the accumulation of active-duty service periods to earn higher education benefits.  Approximately 25 percent of reservists have served multiple tours. Qualifying them for the higher benefit rate.
• Extend the window of time to use the benefit from 10 years to 15 after discharge or separation.
• Allow an active duty military person to transfer their educational benefits to their spouse or children.

As you can see with the new changes, the Colleges will receive and influx of Veterans and their dependents.   

In order to better serve this population, it would be great to offer cohort classes.  Offering cohort classes acts as a support group for the Veteran Students.  It allows the Veteran to deal with the past and future.  If you are interested in offering a cohort group, please contact the Veterans Office at your college.