A College of One.

As reader Serns commented on a previous post, the original GI Bill was a grateful nation's reward for its citizen soldiers, not a recruitment come-on. From a CBS News report:

The law, officially called the Servicemen's Readjustment Act, promised returning veterans that the government would pay the full cost of tuition and books at any public or private college or job-training program. It also provided unemployment insurance and loans to buy homes and start businesses.

By contrast, the current Montgomery GI Bill, passed in 1984, asks active duty members to accept a pay reduction of $100 per month through twelve months of military service. When they return to school, they receive $1,100 monthly for a maximum of three years of education benefits. It's an amount that doesn't come close to covering the cost of a modern college education, but it does help some veterans — if they can get through the red tape.

Two generations later, there have also been dramatic changes in the cost and delivery of higher education. Today, many active duty military personnel are being encouraged to pursue their education online through such programs as the Army's eArmyU, which provides access to scores of college programs via a single portal that also includes services and information specific to the military. It had 75,000 soldiers enrolled by the end of 2006 and has continued to grow since.

Online degree programs are offered by traditional colleges as well as for-profit schools like the University of Phoenix, Capella University and American Military University. These programs focus on adult learners who are non-traditional —and to some extent, less-prepared to succeed for a variety of reasons.

Although I haven't found numbers on the proportion of veterans and active duty military, data from eLearners.com  showed that the top ranked cities per capita for prospective online learners were:

1. Hinesville-Fort Stewart, GA
2. Fort Polk South, LA
3. Jacksonville, NC
4. Fayetteville, NC
5. Fort Leonard Wood, MO
6. St. Marys, GA
7. Oak Harbor, WA
8. Ketchikan, AK
9. Warner Robins, GA
10. Killeen-Temple-Fort Hood, TX

Among these ten cities, six serve as the home base or post for members of the United States military. "Online learning is a perfect fit for servicemen and women," said Gansler. "Thousands of members of the military are turning to online education because it offers the flexibility needed to fit their schedule."

Well, yes, but according CBS News,

veterans are much less likely to graduate from college than students who have never served in the military. The department's most recent data show just 3 percent of veterans who entered a four-year college program in 1995 graduated by 2001, compared with a 30 percent overall graduation rate.

Another reason for that gap is the military experience itself. The Pentagon sells an educational dream to recruits. In addition to promising tens of thousands of dollars for a service member's college education, recruiters promise future soldiers that they'll be able to "attend college anywhere they are based and even in the combat zone through Internet classes offered from the college they are enrolled in."

But most Iraq War veterans say that’s a promise that exists only on paper.

I'm not knocking the military here, because it is one of the world's organizations most committed to training and education. Online programs, though not for everyone, certainly best fit military realities. But they also help sell a dream of access to an education that our country really isn't supporting as it once did.