Has The Post-9/11 GI Bill Seen Its First Cut?

New legislation would reduce the housing allowance for dependents using the GI Bill. That has some advocates worried.




Jamie Hanway had already served more than 20 years in the U.S. Army by the time the Post-9/11 GI Bill went into effect in 2009, but it couldn’t have come at a better time. Just as Hanway and his wife were beginning to plan for retirement, their three daughters were starting to prepare for college.

Money was tight.




“We really pushed them to get good grades and get the scholarships,” he told Task & Purpose. “I hate to say it, but my financial advisor a few years back had advised us to not save as much as we were for our kids’ college education so we could plan and prepare for our retirement, because college is so dang expensive our retirement would have suffered.”

Hanway currently serves as a chief warrant officer 3 overseeing automotive maintenance in the Nebraska National Guard, where he also works full-time as a civilian contractor doing a similar job. Still, like most Americans, Hanway and his wife weren’t pulling in enough income to put three children through college.

Fortunately, Hanway, who was activated to deploy to Iraq between 2003-2005, had accrued 36 months of the Post-9/11 GI Bill. Having served more than 10 years, he had also surpassed the minimum time requirement for transferring the bill to his dependents. So he decided to give each of his three daughters 12 months, beginning with his eldest, who began her freshman year at Hastings College in the Fall of 2015.

Yearly tuition for an undergraduate student at Hastings, a private liberal arts college in southern Nebraska, is about $26,000. Add that to yearly room and board, which is about $9,000, and the total cost amounts to nearly $10,000 more than what the Post-9/11 GI Bill covers for a year in the Hastings area code, where the housing allowance is $800 a month.

“The GI Bill helps, and it helps a lot,” Hanway said, “but she still has to work to help cover the remainder of the expenses. After this year, she’s going to have to work more hours or find another job that pays better.”
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