G.I. Bill

Today in American Military History -- 1944
FDR signs the "Servicemen's Readjustment Act", better known as "the GI Bill of Rights"

In April of 1944 Congress passed the Servicemen's Adjustment Act, popularly known as the "G. I. Bill of Rights." The measure had several objectives. One was to reward the millions of young men and women who had interrupted their lives to fight the Axis. The second was a bit subtler, to insure that all those suddenly discharged men and women didn't flood the job market, creating an economic disaster.
The G.I. Bill provided honorably discharged personnel who had been on active duty for at least 90 days from Sept 16, 1940, with:

Educational & Training Grants: Assistance in completing their education or in taking job training.
Loans: Federally underwritten credit to help buy a new home, and to start a farm or a business.
Unemployment Insurance: $20 a week for one year, which came to be known as the "52/20 Club"
Job Placement Assistance

Of these programs, the one that had the most noticeable effect was the home loan provision. Because it mandated that loans could only be used for the purchase of newly constructed homes, it sparked the massive suburbanization that swept the country in the post-war period.
But it was the educational benefit that probably had the greatest impact on the nation. All eligible veterans were entitled to one year of fully paid educational benefits, plus an additional year for each year of their service, up to a total of 48 months, with a maximum of $500 a year for tuition, books, fees, and other training costs. Unmarried veterans in an approved educational program were entitled to $50 a month in subsistence allowance, which was raised to $65 in 1946, and $75 in 1948, with appropriate additions for dependants..
Until the program was ended in mid-1956, more than half of America's approximately 15.5 million World War II veterans, took advantage of the educational benefits of the G.I. Bill, for a total of 7.8 million men and women.

2.23 million went to college
3.48 million attended technical institutes and schools
1.4 million participated in on-the-job-training programs, often run by unions or industry
690,000 underwent agricultural training

The total cost of the educational part of the G.I. Bill was $14.5 billion, about $1,860 per veteran.
The payoff from this investment was enormous. As millions of men and women who would never have gone to college completed their education, to become teachers, doctors, lawyers, engineers, and scientists, helping to fuel the economic boom that began in the late '40s and continued for nearly three decades.