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Would give vets and service members priority class registration
YOUNGSTOWN
U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Cleveland, said he plans to introduce legislation that would give veterans and service members and their families priority when registering for college classes in order to graduate before their G.I. Bill benefits run out.
Brown, speaking Monday at Eastern Gateway Community College here during National Salute to Veterans Week, said the bill would follow the model employed by Youngstown State University, which allows veterans, including those coming from a two-year institution, to attain priority enrollment at the four-year institution.
He said the legislation would ensure that veterans and students serving in the armed forces and their qualifying dependents can take full advantage of the federal education benefits they have earned for themselves and their families.
Because veterans have a limited amount of time before their G.I. Bill education benefits expire, priority registration policies, like those available to student athletes, would ensure veterans can complete their class work before funding runs out, the senator said.
“Veterans who served without delay should not be delayed in getting an education,” Brown said.
Army veteran David Ewing Jr., a student at Eastern Gateway and a part-time Brookfield firefighter, is hopeful Brown’s bill will somehow help him extend his G.I. Bill benefits time limit.
Ewing, who served on active and reserve duty from 1986 to 2006, has only one year left to use his G.I. Bill benefits and is just beginning to work toward a four-year college degree.
William Fowler Jr. of Youngstown, who served from 1978 to 1985 in the Marine Corps and expects to graduate in December 2015 from Eastern Gateway’s two-year criminal-justice program, listened to Brown’s presentation.
“I just wanted to hear what he had to say,” said Fowler, whose G.I. Bill benefits time limit already has expired.
Brown, a senior member of the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, was joined at the podium by Lisa Thomas, 52, of Steubenville, who served in the Army from 1985 to 1989.
Thomas recently graduated from Eastern Gateway’s Jefferson County Campus with an associate degree in corrections with a concentration in social services. An employee at Urban Mission Ministries of Steubenville, she is enrolled at Franklin University in Columbus pursuing a degree in applied psychology.
While Thomas did not face the loss of G.I. Bill benefits because the time limitation to use them was expiring, she described how another G.I. Bill program, the Veterans Retraining Assistance Program, helped her finish her education at Eastern Gateway.
The VRAP G.I. Bill offers up to 12 months of Montgomery G.I. Bill benefits for older unemployed veterans between age 35 and 60. This program was created as a part of the VOW to Hire Heroes Act of 2011 and ended in April 2014.
Under VRAP, Thomas said she received money that could be used for everyday living expenses, such as car repairs and household costs.