But without accountability on how the money is used, veterans have been preyed upon, especially by for-profit colleges, according to Walter Ochinko, research director at Veterans Education Success, an advocacy group. Legislation to improve the transparency and accountability of colleges and programs that enroll veterans who use GI Bill benefits is long overdue, Ochinko said. “Too frequently, beneficiaries enroll in an institution because of aggressive advertising and recruiting by low-quality schools that use lead generators to identify potential students,” Ochinko added.
His group completed a recent study that showed 46% of veterans of color left without a degree compared with 39% of White veterans. Veterans who earned bachelor’s degrees at for-profit schools graduated with significantly more student loan debt than their peers who attended public and nonprofit institutions, according to the study.
“While these data are a warning sign about for-profit schools, being able to compare the student loan debt of GI Bill beneficiaries at specific schools in each sector could be a game-changer for veterans and eligible family members because their need to borrow is tempered by their generous educational benefits,” Ochinko said.
Read the full article at Bloomberg here.