The Veteran's Cost Of Attendance Barrier

There's a lot of mid-tier universities that love to call themselves "veteran friendly." It's a thing that's irked me for years. Now there's a new Pew report that exposes what "veteran friendly" means in most cases (it's disingenuous at best) and looks like in practice (it's not a flattering image). 

Pew found that despite the Post-9/11 GI Bill being one of the most substantial education benefits the federal government has ever offered, roughly one in five veterans are still taking out private lender loans after separating from service, borrowing an average of $22,597 over the first four years of their post-military transitions. The data raises the question, if the GI Bill is so robust, why are veterans going into debt to use it? An analysis of the data reveals that the debt isn't incurred to cover tuition, it's used to pay for living expenses, especially housing. And this is the part that private universities (particularly tuition-dependent privates) are challenged to talk about.

The GI Bill includes a monthly housing allowance, but that allowance covers half or less of actual housing costs for nearly 40% of veterans taking out personal loans. The allowance simply doesn't cover what housing actually costs. Private universities know what the GI Bill's annual cap is for their institutions. They know what the housing allowance is in their region and city. And nearly all of them willingly capture the tuition dollars, call it "friendly" and leave the rest up to the veteran to figure out.

The bolder and more impactful thing for these universities to do is create a cost structure for veterans based on the total cost of attendance. This means full transparency about the gap between the GI Bill's housing allowance and local housing rates, and then cover the delta with intuitional aid that doesn't compromise the veteran's tuition benefits. They can do this by creating a dedicated veteran housing subsidy fund, supported by alumni giving and institutional budget commitments, that fills the gap between what the GI Bill housing allowance covers and what housing actually costs near campus. Like most solutions in higher ed, this wouldn't require millions of dollars. Even modest, targeted grants covering a few hundred dollars a month in housing costs would keep veterans away from private lenders entirely. Then, double-down on your commitment to veterans and pair the housing subsidy with a progressive model for verifying completed professional military education, awarding stackable credentials that represent that learning, and combining those credentials with a small amount of targeted coursework to earn a university recognized certificate. If a veteran's military training translates into real academic credit, that's fewer courses to pay for, fewer months before graduation, and less time running up against the GI Bill's 36 month enrollment limit, which Pew also identifies as a significant driver of veteran borrowing.

Again, none of this is hard or complicated, but it does require executive leadership to walk the talk and not shrink behind the looming enrollment crises while keeping a death grip on a decaying business model.