You do still have to pay into it. It ends up being about $2,000 when its all said and done. The GI Bill works much like Social Security in that the gov't knows that not everyone will use it. Traditionally, roughly 50% of service members use it (although 70% used it last year). In addition, and something that no one talks about, you must leave the service (I know the Marines do this, not sure what the other service's policies are) with an honorable discharge and at least 4.0 average conduct marks in service. Without going into much detail, a Marine can very easily dip below the 4.0 conduct mark (the scale is 0-5) by being overweight, being non-judicially punished (a slap on the wrist), having excessive speeding tickets, etc. There's a lot of stuff that can dip a Marine below 4.0 conduct marks. Also, if a Marine is administratively seperated from the service for something besides medical reasons, he loses his GI Bill. If you think about it, it only takes a year for someone to pay off their GI Bill. So you take 3 months of recruit training, at least 1 month of MOS training, thats 8 months a kid has to screw up bad enough that he would be kicked out before paying all of his GI Bill dues. Not likely at all.
To be fair, I'm sure the gov't did anticipate (shocker) that 70% of servicemembers would use it. This may be an outlier, but, its still there. I believe the program, if it continues at the 50% rate, is sound and pays for itself. If the 70% usage continues, its time for our gov't to take another look at it because then it ceases to pay for itself.
Lastly, I don't have data on this because I can't find it anywhere, but there is a pay scale of what a service member receives according to how many years he is in school. If someone gets out and goes to a short technical school, they only receive enough money to pay for those hours. It isn't a lump sum where a service member receives enough money for 3 years of college when he is only taking 6 months of classes.
You guys can throw it in my face all you want that I said we should have a level playing field. A level playing field would mean all of you served 4 years, just like thosehonorable men and women. However, some of you choose not too. In fact, 91% of you choose not too (US Census data). So, if we want to talk about a level playing field, while those of you that went were in college, these guys were in Iraq or Afghanistan being shot at. While you were at a frat party getting hammered, they were standing post in a bunker missing their girlfriend or wife. I understand they volunteered for it. I also understand you didn't. Not all military, as some would have you believe, are citizens that can't do anything else so they join. The average Special Forces serviemember holds a bachelor's degree with many having a masters or higher. Every officer has a bachelors degree. Every enlisted man has a high school diploma or equilavent. That's more than we can say for the civilian population.
