Matt Jensen joined the Army after Sept. 11, 2001, for two reasons:
Fight the terrorists. And get a college education.
Now, after year as an infantryman in Iraq, Jensen is a student at Onondaga Community College. His veterans’ benefits from the government, state grants and financial aid pay for his education.
“I can pay for where I live, my tuition and food,” said Jensen, 30, of North Syracuse.
Jensen is among 536,487 American military veterans nationally pursuing college degrees under tax-supported educational programs, according to the federal National Center for Veterans Analysis and Statistics. For Jensen and the others, state and federal funding can cover tuition, books and housing.
To get those benefits, Jensen said, he waited behind 50 others to enlist in the United States Army at 11 p.m. on Sept. 12, 2001. The terrorist attacks the day before drove him there, he said. Starting in September 2006, he spent a year as an infantryman in Iraq. By the time he flew home in September 2007, he recalls, he had learned some Arabic, played soccer with Iraqi children and grieved for 11 comrades who didn’t make it.
“Dealing with the local people was definitely the best part of it,” Jensen said.
Veterans’ educational benefits were a product of World War II, known as the “G.I. Bill” — government legislation that funded college educations for millions of returning G.I.’s. Historians credit the original bill as a major force in developing the American middle class—many people ended up with college degrees that helped them economically.
Today, veterans like Jensen receive similar education benefits through a collection of government programs. One is the Montgomery G.I. Bill, named for former Mississippi Congressman Gillespie V. “Sonny” Montgomery, himself a veteran of World War II and the Korean War and a longtime member of the Veterans Affairs Committee. The Montgomery bill helps students who entered active duty after July 1, 1985.
Another source of educational benefits is the Post-9/11 G.I. Bill, which subsidizes tuition, housing and books for veterans who started serving on or after the terrorist attacks that day. It took effect Aug. 1, 2009. Over the next decade, the federal government has allocated $2.3 billion for the Post-9/11 G.I. Bill. A portion of that will come from the Montgomery G.I. Bill, which is being phased out.
At Onondaga Community College, about 292 veterans are pursuing degrees under the government programs. That’s a 40 percent increase from spring 2009.
Paul Holzwarth, OCC’s veterans’ program coordinator, largely attributes the surge in veteran students to the Post-9/11 Bill. “It kind of opened the door,” said Holzwarth, 53, also a veteran who served in Europe in the late 1970s during the Vietnam War.
The economy, Holzwarth said, is the driving force for many returning veterans. The economy, he said, “says, ‘Hey, you really need to get an education and you really need some good background to get out here to get into this workforce’.”
Bill Smullen, a retired Army colonel and director of the national security program at Syracuse University, agrees. “I think it’s good for the country because it stimulates people to get smarter, to be better and to make a contribution to the business world, to make a contribution to the economy,” Smullen said. “All of this stimulates activity that will provide jobs.”
Smullen himself went to college following his 30 years in the Army. He didn’t have to draw on the G.I. Bill’s benefits, he said, because the Army paid for him to go to SU.
Veterans receive these benefits as a way for the rest of the country to say “thank you,” Smullen said. He added, “I think it’s a wonderful way for the American people to give back, because the taxpayers are obviously paying for this.”
For his part, Iraqi war veteran Jensen was discharged from the Army in December 2007 and enrolled in the following spring at Onondaga Community College. His education is covered by both the Montgomery Bill and the Post-9/11 Bill.
His military service gives him an edge beyond the tuition benefits, he said. “School is very easy for me because of the discipline I have, having been in the military,” Jensen said.
On the other hand, he said, switching back to civilian life was more of a challenge. “I get very frustrated because I think people are really weak,” he said. “Seeing people who don’t try to better themselves makes me very angry because they have so many opportunities.”
At OCC, Jensen is finishing up his third associate’s degree. He expects to graduate in May 2011.
He hopes to get a bachelor’s degree from SUNY Cortland, he said, and eventually get a master’s degree in exercise science from the University of Florida.
“I’m lucky,” Jensen said. “I’m actually getting paid to go to school.”
(Rebecca Shabad is a senior dual major in broadcast journalism and political science.)
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