A New GI Bill #
Jim Webb (D-Va.) is trying to make the GI Bill cover the cost of a modern education. Writing in support, Anna Quindlen makes a few good — if heavily barbed — points:
The source of the opposition is shocking: the Department of Defense, whose leaders argue that offering enhanced educational opportunities to soldiers would hurt retention. Military brass apparently tremble at the notion that multiple deployments, starvation wages and inadequate medical care might not be enough to hold on to their people.
Of course, this is the military brass who have had to lower age and ability standards despite spending billions to try to entice young men and women to join up. It does not seem to have occurred to them that a better long-range plan would be to offer true educational incentives so that more focused and ambitious people would enlist.
(via brijit)