Congress approved a new GI Bill in July, which will take effect in August 2009.
The bill includes changes that will add more benefits for veterans who want to go to college.
Darrin Kowitz, a graduate student who established a support group for veterans at the University last year, said the new GI Bill is long overdue and has almost double the funding of the previous one.
"The GI Bill had gone way downhill," he said. "It hadn't kept up with the rising cost of education, until now. I fully support the new bill, and I'm ecstatic about the new opportunities it provides."
Matthew Moody, a student employee in UNM's Veterans Office, said he is also glad to see the changes in the bill.
"It has been a long time coming. The older version of the GI Bill was very outdated. The new GI Bill is more up with the current times," he said.
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David Valdez, a student
employee in the Veterans Office, said the new bill will only apply to veterans who were activated after 9/11.
The bill will now cover the amount of tuition required by even the most expensive state school, though veterans may attend a private school if they choose to pay the difference, and will cover the cost from day one, Moody said.
"Previously, a veteran would have to come up with the initial payment," Kowitz said. "Since most people don't have an extra couple thousand dollars, they would put it on a credit card or get a loan, which adds high interest rates to the equation."
Valdez said the bill will also cover books and includes a $1,000 monthly stipend for living expenses.
"The housing allowance will be especially helpful to students," Moody said.
Student Marcial Martinez gets part of his school costs covered by the GI Bill. He said he believes the changes will allow even more veterans to access higher education.
"There's a lot of guys out there whose only way to go to college is with the GI Bill," he said. "My roommate goes to ITT Tech, and he wouldn't be able to afford it without the GI Bill."
Under the new bill, veterans will be able to transfer their benefits to family members if they do not wish to use them themselves, Kowitz said.
"There's so many new benefits with the new bill. Now we just have to get more veterans to use them," he said.
And to do that, Kowitz said that he is working with a student support group to spread the word about the benefits.
"There are around 200,000 veterans in New Mexico," Kowitz said. "Around 22,000 to 26,000 are from Iraq since the war has begun. Only 3,500 of these veterans actually use the benefits which are available to them. This generation just isn't using the resources available."
Valdez said he hopes the support group will increase the number of veterans in higher education.
"Once this student support group gets proactive, we'll be able to get more veterans to utilize their benefits," he said.
