Chapter 13

One of the major topics that interested me the most in Chapter 13 was the unemployment rate among the youth where, during World War II, President Roosevelt wanted to solve the dilemma by requiring military training for all males in hopes that it would be the cure for many of America’s problems. Congress, then, served as a security blanket by passing the GI Bill of Rights and  providing military trainees with the necessary funds needed to continue their education with benefits helping them with their tuition, books, and living expenses. Although this bill caused an astonishing increase in college enrollment, there were some disadvantages that were brought up in this reading and other documents.

One issue with the GI Bill of Rights was that there was a lack of balance between security and military needs. In other words, there was a higher demand for engineers and scientists which weren’t the initial interests of many who were in the military. It wasn’t until the formation of the National Science Foundation that more students were interested in these courses. My current concern with this bill is that many students put so much dependency on the military in hopes of getting a good education. Since our government uses education as an incentive, not all but many, students join the military because either everything else isn’t working for them, because the experience may serve as a way to correct their disciplinary problems, or because they can‘t afford to pay for school so they serve their time in hopes of getting the economic assistance. How often in the GI Bill modified? How effective is the GI bill after having heard that they are sluggish with their payments to schools? If a University or college is waiting for tuition payments from thousands of veterans who attended school under the GI Bill, then what would kind of effect would this have on veterans who don’t have the money to pay in the mean time? What does this say about our government dependency?