Testimony before the Subcommittees on Higher Education and Workforce Investment (House Committee on Education and Labor) and Economic Opportunity (House Committee on Veterans Affairs) Joint Hearing Protecting Those Who Protect Us: Ensuring the Success of our Student Veterans

Abstract

This Congressional testimony provides context for Congressional oversight of the Department of Veterans Affairs (“VA”) and Department of Education (“ED”) to ensure the success of student veterans using veterans education benefits. In the 75 years since the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944, now commonly referred to as the GI Bill, was signed into law, millions of veterans have used their veterans education benefits to pursue higher education. However, certain bad actors in the for-profit school sector have targeted student veterans with a variety of predatory behaviors. Frequent abrupt for-profit school closures have added to the challenges veterans encounter when utilizing education benefits at for-profit schools. Student veterans often have more limited options to recover wasted funds at for-profit schools than do their civilian peers. Consumer protection statutes often offer limited redress for veterans and, due to ED’s failure to process veterans’ Borrower Defense to Repayment applications, student veterans are often saddled with large debts on top of wasted benefits. While veterans have faced problems when utilizing GI Bill funds at for-profit schools since almost the inception of the original GI Bill in 1944, VA has failed to adequately monitor and regulate schools seeking to receive GI Bill funds. Through a convoluted oversight process, the VA attempts to outsource oversight to state approving agencies (“SAAs”) created in each state to administer GI Bill benefits. Statutory authority for the SAAs contemplates a cooperative working relationship between the VA and SAAs, but this is often lacking or actively undermined by the VA. The combination of predatory behavior by numerous for-profit schools combined with lax oversight by ED and VA all too often leads to bad educational outcomes for those who have set aside their personal affairs and answered the call of service.