On this day in 1944, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed into law the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act, popularly known as the GI Bill of Rights. By the time that legislation expired in 1956, 7.8 million World War II veterans had availed themselves of the bill’s education and training benefits, while 2.4 million veterans had obtained low-interest home loans backed by the Veterans Administration.
Another provision entitled former service members to receive $20 a week for as long as they remained unemployed. Less than 20 percent of the money set aside for this purpose was distributed because most returning service personnel either quickly found jobs or else pursued higher education.
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In crafting the bill, FDR and the Congress sought to avoid a repetition of the Bonus March of 1932, when some 20,000 unemployed veterans and their families came to Washington in the midst of the Great Depression to press for accelerated disbursements of their World War I benefits.
In the aftermath of World War I, only 53,000 Americans held college degrees. By funding tuition, living expenses, books, supplies and equipment for former service personnel, the GI Bill transformed post-war higher education. By 1947, veterans made up half of the nation’s college enrollments. In 1950 alone, nearly 500,000 Americans graduated from college.
The list of prominent Americans who took advantage of the original GI Bill includes former Presidents George H.W. Bush and Gerald Ford and entertainers Johnny Cash, Paul Newman and Clint Eastwood.
The success of that legislation led to the passage of similar measures that have helped subsequent generations of veterans. Beginning in August of this year, recent veterans will be eligible for greatly expanded benefits, including the full cost of any public college in their state. The new bill also provides a housing allowance and a stipend of $1,000 a year for books.
Source: “Soldiers to Citizens: The G.I. Bill and the Making of the Greatest Generation,” by Suzanne Mettler (2005)