Online or not, higher education is still a top priority for military vets

WASHINGTON — When most of his high school peers were applying to college, Richard Sisk was signing up for the Army.

“I had pretty much decided right after 9/11 that I was going to join the military,” Sisk, now 25, said in a phone interview. “I think it was patriotism and I just wanted to get out of small town Mississippi.”

That was in June, 2004. Four years of service and one tour in Afghanistan later, the infantryman decided to rejoin civilian life. And that meant pursuing a college education.

“I’m the first person in my family to ever go to college,” said Sisk, a junior at Kennesaw State University in Georgia. “My main motivation? I wanted to make a career for myself outside of the military.”

The post-9/11 G.I. Bill is helping Sisk reach his goal. Enacted in 2008, the bill pays college tuition and housing fees and provides a stipend for textbooks for individuals who have served at least 90 days on active duty since September 11, 2001.

Sisk said college probably wouldn’t have been possible for him without the benefits of the bill. He’s not alone: Through the end of August 2011, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has issued more than $12.7 billion in these benefit payments to about 582,000 servicemembers.

A younger Richard Sisk in his Army days.

When he considered his options, Sisk said picking a public university over an online institution was a no-brainer.

“I wanted the full college experience,” he said. “Not just sitting alone in front of a computer.”

But for some veterans, a traditional classroom setting isn’t an option. Readjusting to civilian life, physical disabilities, job searching and balancing family obligations often make it difficult to pursue a higher education except online.

Tony Galasso, 47, was a technical sergeant in the Air Force for 20 years. He’s using the Montgomery GI Bill, an earlier, more restricted version of the post-9/11 G.I. Bill, to pay for online education from for-profit Kaplan University.

“Getting an education at home was very beneficial,” said Galasso, who received his bachelor’s degree and is now earning his master’s at Kaplan. “I didn’t have to travel anywhere, worry about parking, or worry about getting to class on time. All I had to do was turn on my computer and go to school… I could go in my pajamas if I wanted.”

The same perks are attracting Galasso’s younger counterparts looking to take advantage of their post-9/11 G.I. Bills. Eight for-profit colleges raked in about $626 million in veteran education benefits in the most recent academic year, according to statistics released by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.

But some congressmen say they’re worried that these for-profit institutions may not be working in the best interests of veterans.

“Veterans have been subjected to highly questionable recruitment practices, deceptive marketing and substandard education instruction in some of the schools they attend,” Sen. Tom Carper (D –Del.) said last month at a hearing for the Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management, Government Information, Federal Services, and International Security.

Other policymakers say they’re also concerned that these for-profit institutions are exploiting veteran recruits. Some of these for-profits have higher tuition costs than at public colleges, higher dropout rates and difficulty in transferring class credits.

“These kinds of predatory schools have chosen not to focus on the educational outcomes for those they enroll, but rather a bulk of one-time payouts of federal benefits to maintain their bottom line,” Ryan Gallucci, deputy director of Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States, wrote in a hearing testimony.

Veterans are especially vulnerable due to the 90-10 rule, a law that requires colleges to obtain at least 10 percent of their revenue from non-government sources. The stipulation was meant to force colleges to prove their stature through private funding. However, the G.I. Bill doesn’t count government support under the rule, despite its taxpayer funding.

“This gives for-profit colleges an incentive to see service members as nothing more than dollar signs in uniform,” Holly Petraeus, assistant director for service member affairs at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, said in a recent New York Times op-ed.

Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa, chairman of the Senate education committee, said in a statement that a veteran attending a for-profit college costs taxpayers $10,900 a year. This is nearly two times as much as the cost of a veteran enrolled in a public university, according to the statement, prompting experts to question whether the federal government’s money is being well spent.

“Easy to sign up, military friendly, you can do it online — but the question is: What is the value of those courses or that degree once you’ve completed them?” Petraeus told NPR last month.

It could be argued that determining the value of a for-profit education is mostly measured by job placement. While no concrete numbers exist for veteran graduates, an average of 75 percent of all 2009 for-profit graduates landed jobs within six months of graduation, according to studies by the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools and the Coalition for Education Success.

“I consider my degree very legitimate,” Galasso said. “I am not sure how it will look to an employer, but at least I can show my kids that if I can get a college education, they can do it, too.”

Varying statistics, success stories and complaints about for-profits result in a gray cloud that’s difficult to navigate. Student experiences cannot be easily generalized and for-profit institutions are not one in the same.

But a few things are certain: Veterans seeking higher education need more information and academic counseling to make informed decisions about their future. Only recently did the Department of Veterans Affairs create a G.I. Bill guide to help veterans sift through their options.

Experts at last month’s hearing also suggested collecting and disclosing graduation rates, providing accreditation information, insisting on more transparency from for-profit schools and demanding more oversight by the Department of Defense.

Until these changes are implemented, however, veterans must educate and protect themselves.

“It doesn’t matter whether a veteran is going to school online or on campus, just take advantage of the G.I. Bill,” Sisk said. “You have to believe in yourself and make smart decisions. You just have to think, ‘If I can handle going to war in the Army, what’s tackling one class?’”