It is out of that history that the GI Bill was born. Political leaders genuinely feared the chaotic and revolutionary conditions that characterized the decades of the 1920s and 1930s after World War I. At the war’s end, the nation faced a massive demobilization of both the military and the domestic wartime economy, with attendant dislocation of human and social capital. Four years of World War II, preceded by 11 years of the Great Depression, left the nation, especially those in the veterans’ age group, largely uneducated, lacking in work experience, and living in substandard and overcrowded dwellings. The Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944, brilliantly labeled the GI Bill of Rights, was a response to the prospective return to civilian life of more than 15 million servicemen and about 350,000 women. While most of those academics eventually acknowledged the high quality and motivation of veteran students, the immediate impact of older and middle- and lower-class students’ enrolling at colleges and universities altered prewar perceptions of higher education, giving rise to today’s continuing issues of mission, access, diversity, and financing. Many leading academics of the time expressed concern that the GI Bill was a threat to academic quality, and they sought to control and circumscribe eligibility. Nor was its passage through Congress unmarked by controversy. The latter purpose has lived on in subsequent, though less generous, versions for Korean War and Vietnam War veterans and now as an enlistment incentive for all volunteer military personnel under the Montgomery GI Bill. ![]() ![]() It was conceived as a partial solution to potential postwar chaos and as a reward for military service. ![]() That was the effect but not the intent of the GI Bill. Nevertheless, the bill almost instantly changed the social landscape of America.Ĭontemporary political leaders periodically call for a new GI Bill, using the name as a synonym for some vague general aid to education and to convey a concept of universal access to higher education. Its passage in June 1944 was largely unheralded (the Normandy invasion was in full swing), and its consequences totally unforeseen. This year of special remembrance and celebration of World War II holds special meaning for higher education - it is also the 60th anniversary of the passage of the GI Bill.
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