Jonathan Banasihan, Veteran
Good afternoon, my name is Jonathan Banasihan. I am a Navy veteran with deployments in operations supporting Iraq and Afghanistan.
I am here to express my support for the closure of the 90/10 loophole. I urge The Department of Education to take all appropriate action to end this menace to veterans.
I was fortunate to have guidance on how to best utilize my GI Bill when the time came to transition.
It helped me to attain an education I could not afford on my own and to secure a job that is a significant improvement from the possibilities I had using just my service. And that’s what the GI Bill is, a promise deferred, an investment in future opportunities for servicemembers from a grateful nation.
For the nation, the GI Bill can return a well-educated and highly skilled contribution to the workforce. For the veteran, it empowers their futures. But this is contingent on finding an education, and institutions, that act in good faith to create these powerful outcomes.
The institutions that target veterans, that market themselves on every base and on every media, do not act in good faith. Most graduates of these institutions are drained of their precious time and resources pursuing degree that do not enable their success. These kinds of institutions do not offer opportunities, they rob from the future.
Allowing these institutions to continue the practice of accounting the GI Bill outside of federal funding is obscene. Federal dollars – money from the people of the United States – are being used to pad profit margins and leave their customers all the worse.
Every veteran that walks through those doors with a degree worth less than the paper it’s printed on diminishes the GI Bill’s promise. Today I ask this Department to take the steps necessary to ensure that this promise is honored in full.
…Thank you.
Public Hearings_Speech_Veteran_Jonathan Banasihan