Over time, more and more people started questioning if anything less than complete funding is any way to reward those who had put their lives at risk to serve their country.
Elizabeth O’Herrin, executive director of Student Veterans of America, noted that the Montgomery GI Bill — which provides education funding for those who have served in the military at any point since July 1, 1985 — was created during a relatively peaceful time, near the end of the Cold War.
“There was a feeling that the Montgomery GI Bill wasn’t a sufficient education benefit — especially when one considers what service we are now asking of our military since the advent of the war” in Iraq, said O’Herrin, a 2007 UW-Madison graduate and a member of the Wisconsin Air National Guard.