As a higher education professional working at SUNY New Paltz to help veterans like me navigate college, I know firsthand the significant lifetime value of achieving a degree. But when it came time to return to school to seek my master’s degree, I still faced the same question so many of the students I work with do: How will I afford this?
Though immensely helpful, I exhausted the GI Bill benefits earned during my Naval service to obtain an undergraduate degree in adolescent education at SUNY New Paltz. Hugely beneficial, it still took me only to a certain point in my career before I hit the ceiling, needing a master’s degree to advance but knowing I would have to pay out of pocket. The issue is because I served in a non-combat role, I wasn’t eligible for the state’s Veteran Tuition Awards program, which historically has been restricted only to those who served in combat.
I hear versions of this all-too-common story from veterans on a regular basis. But this year, that changes.
Under a new law signed by Gov. Kathy Hochul that took effect in July, New York, for the first time, opened the VTA program up to non-combat veterans. This is about more than rewarding sacrifice and service with critical financial aid. It’s about righting an historic inequity that created separate classes of veterans based simply on the assignment we received from higher up the chain of command.
This fall semester, I will be able to continue attending classes through Empire State University paying out of pocket only for my books. That’s a game-changer for my wife and I, at a time when, like many New Yorkers, affordability is top of mind with household costs ticking up and up and up.
Gov. Hochul, take the next step for veterans
Those affordability challenges are exactly why it’s the right time for state leaders to take veterans tuition support a step further. Unlike the GI Bill, New York’s VTA does not allow veterans to transfer unused higher education benefits to family members. Legislation approved in Albany earlier this year would empower families to access higher education by giving veterans the ability to transfer their benefits to a spouse, child or other dependent — if Hochul signs it into law.
Military families make their own sacrifices as they are often forced to learn how to run their households in the absence of a family member who is deployed, or pick up their lives to move to an unfamiliar place where their loved one is stationed. Those sacrifices should not go unnoticed.
The long-term benefits of further expanding the VTA program are critical not only to individuals, but to the state’s economy.
Overall, those with a bachelor’s degree are expected to have median earnings 86% higher than those with only a high school diploma and are 47% more likely to have health insurance through their job. What’s more, veterans with bachelor’s degrees make an average of $17,000 more per year than those who have not served in the military, and this figure increases to $30,000 more for veterans with advanced degrees.
All of that means stable, family-sustaining careers that drive spending and taxes that benefit our communities.
I have seen firsthand how higher education delivers exactly that. In my role, I have the privilege of supporting not only New York veterans but their families as well. This often comes in the guise of finding the most funding possible to make the college dream a reality. Changes to the law that would allow for veterans to pass these benefits to the families they support would be a welcome step forward.
Donnie Martin is director of the Office of Veteran & Military Services at SUNY New Paltz.
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: NY supports veterans in higher ed. Let’s do more for military families | Opinion
Reporting by Donnie Martin / Rockland/Westchester Journal News
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