The New GI bill is drawing attention to the 1944 law, which some say is mythologized
It remains to be seen if the new law will prod more institutions to reach out to veterans or if it will transform veterans' enrollment patterns. But history suggests a skeptical view.
In the 60 years since its passage, the original GI bill has gained an almost mythical status. It has been credited with promoting postwar prosperity, expanding the middle class, and democratizing higher education in the United States. Some historians see it as a watershed in American higher education, the moment when college was transformed from a privilege to a right.
In some ways, the bill was transformative. When it passed, the average American service member had 11.5 years of schooling, and only 8 percent of troops planned to continue their education after the war, according to a survey conducted by the Veterans Affairs Department. Ultimately, more than half of World War II veterans did so.
The bill also helped diversify the nation's campuses, opening doors to more Jewish and Catholic students, as well as lower-class white Protestants and first-generation students. Black students enrolled in greater numbers, too, though some were shut out of segregated Southern institutions and thousands were turned away from overcrowded historically black colleges.
But some historians say the bill played a more modest role in the growth and diversification of the nation's colleges than it's given credit for. College attendance was already on the rise before World War II, with the number of bachelor's degrees awarded quadrupling between 1920 and 1940, according to the Census Bureau. The GI bill accelerated this trend, but it didn't create it, says Robert C. Serow, professor and head of the department of educational leadership and policy studies at North Carolina State University.
Mr. Serow and other skeptics cite a 1951 survey concluding that only 446,400 World War II veterans went to college because of the GI bill. That number is not insignificant, considering that national enrollments at the time hovered around 2.3 million, but it does not match the bill's mythology of social mobility, says Lizabeth Cohen, a professor of American studies at Harvard University who has written about the bill. Instead, she argues, it tended to privilege the privileged.
Read entire article at Chronicle of Higher Ed
In the 60 years since its passage, the original GI bill has gained an almost mythical status. It has been credited with promoting postwar prosperity, expanding the middle class, and democratizing higher education in the United States. Some historians see it as a watershed in American higher education, the moment when college was transformed from a privilege to a right.
In some ways, the bill was transformative. When it passed, the average American service member had 11.5 years of schooling, and only 8 percent of troops planned to continue their education after the war, according to a survey conducted by the Veterans Affairs Department. Ultimately, more than half of World War II veterans did so.
The bill also helped diversify the nation's campuses, opening doors to more Jewish and Catholic students, as well as lower-class white Protestants and first-generation students. Black students enrolled in greater numbers, too, though some were shut out of segregated Southern institutions and thousands were turned away from overcrowded historically black colleges.
But some historians say the bill played a more modest role in the growth and diversification of the nation's colleges than it's given credit for. College attendance was already on the rise before World War II, with the number of bachelor's degrees awarded quadrupling between 1920 and 1940, according to the Census Bureau. The GI bill accelerated this trend, but it didn't create it, says Robert C. Serow, professor and head of the department of educational leadership and policy studies at North Carolina State University.
Mr. Serow and other skeptics cite a 1951 survey concluding that only 446,400 World War II veterans went to college because of the GI bill. That number is not insignificant, considering that national enrollments at the time hovered around 2.3 million, but it does not match the bill's mythology of social mobility, says Lizabeth Cohen, a professor of American studies at Harvard University who has written about the bill. Instead, she argues, it tended to privilege the privileged.