Editing G.I. Bill (section)

==History==
[[File:Veterans Administration letter for Don A. Balfour, July 6, 1944 - GI Bill student at George Washington University.jpg|thumb|Don A. Balfour was "the first recipient of the 1944 GI Bill." [[United States Veterans Administration|Veterans Administration]] letter to [[George Washington University]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=The George Washington Uni Profile |work=DCMilitaryEd.com |access-date=January 9, 2014 |url=http://www.dcmilitaryed.com/cms/storyHE.php?county=DCMilitary&school=25 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110728100559/http://www.dcmilitaryed.com/cms/storyHE.php?county=DCMilitary&school=25 |archive-date=July 28, 2011 }}</ref>]]
On June 22, 1944, the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, commonly known as the G.I. Bill of Rights, was signed into law. Professor [[Edwin Amenta]] states:
:Veterans benefits were a bargain for conservatives who feared increasingly high taxation and the extension of New Deal national government agencies.  Veterans benefits would go to a small group without long-term implications for others, and programs would be administered by the VA, diverting power from New Deal bureaucracies.  Such benefits were likely to hamper New Dealers in their attempts to win a postwar battle over a permanent system of social policy for everyone.<ref>Edwin Amenta. ''Bold Relief: Institutional politics and the origins of modern American social policy'' (Princeton UP, 1998)  p247.</ref>

During the war, politicians wanted to avoid the postwar confusion about veterans' benefits  that became a political football in the 1920s and 1930s.<ref>David Ortiz, ''Beyond the Bonus March and GI Bill: how veteran politics shaped the New Deal era'' (2013) p xiii</ref><ref>Kathleen Frydl, ''The G.I. Bill'' (Cambridge University Press, 2009) pp 47-54.</ref>  Veterans' organizations that had formed after the First World War had millions of members; they mobilized support in Congress for a bill that provided benefits only to veterans of military service, including men and women. Ortiz says their efforts "entrenched the VFW and the Legion as the twin pillars of the American veterans' lobby for decades."<ref>Ortiz, ''Beyond the Bonus March and GI Bill: how veteran politics shaped the New Deal era'' (2009) p xiii</ref><ref>Frydl, ''The G.I. Bill''  (2009) pp 102-44, emphasizes the central role of the American Legion.</ref>

[[Harry W. Colmery]], Republican National Committee chairman and a former National Commander of the American Legion, is credited with writing the first draft of the G.I. Bill.<ref name="gibill.va.gov">{{cite web|url=http://www.gibill.va.gov/benefits/history_timeline/index.html|title=Education and Training Home|last=223D|access-date=June 19, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131114015716/http://www.gibill.va.gov/Benefits/history_timeline/index.html|archive-date=November 14, 2013|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="Findarticles.com">{{cite web|url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4179/is_/ai_n11807386 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081231234425/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4179/is_/ai_n11807386 |url-status=dead |archive-date=December 31, 2008 |title=FindArticles.com - CBSi |access-date=June 19, 2016 }}</ref> He reportedly jotted down his ideas on stationery and a napkin at the [[Mayflower Hotel]] in [[Washington, D.C.]]<ref name="Findarticles.com"/>   A group of 8 from the [[Salem, Illinois]] American Legion have also been credited with recording their ideas for veteran benefits on napkins and paper. The group included Omar J. McMackin, Earl W. Merrit, Dr. Leonard W. Esper, George H. Bauer, William R. McCauley, James P. Ringley, A.L. Starshak and Illinois Governor, [[John Henry Stelle|John Stelle]] who attended the signing ceremony with President Roosevelt.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2019-01-16|title=History|url=https://salemamericanlegionpost128.com/history|access-date=2021-01-06|website=Luther B Easley Salem American Legion Post 128|language=en-US|archive-date=November 24, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201124150648/https://salemamericanlegionpost128.com/history|url-status=dead}}</ref>

U.S. Senator [[Ernest McFarland]], (D) AZ, and National Commander of the American Legion [[Warren Atherton]], (R) CA were actively involved in the bill's passage. [[Edith Nourse Rogers]], (R) MA, who helped write and who co-sponsored the legislation, might be termed as the "mother of the G.I. Bill". As with Colmery, her contribution to writing and passing this legislation has been obscured by time.<ref>{{cite book|author=James E. McMillan|title=Ernest W. McFarland: Majority Leader of the United States Senate, Governor and Chief Justice of the State of Arizona : a biography|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_NAmWD6lvfMC|year=2006|publisher=Sharlot Hall Museum Press|isbn=978-0-927579-23-0|page=113}}</ref>
[[File:GIBill.jpg|thumb|left|A government poster informing soldiers about the G.I. Bill]]
The bill that President Roosevelt initially proposed had a means test—only poor veterans would get one year of funding; only top-scorers on a written exam would get four years of paid college. The American Legion proposal provided full benefits for all veterans, including women and minorities, regardless of their wealth.

An important provision of the G.I. Bill was low interest, zero [[down payment]] home loans for servicemen, with more favorable terms for new construction compared to existing housing.<ref>{{citation|title=A CHRONOLOGY OF HOUSING LEGISLATION AND SELECTED EXECUTIVE ACTIONS, 1892-2003|author=THE CONGRESSIONAL RESEARCH SERVICE|year=2004|publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office|url=http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CPRT-108HPRT92629/html/CPRT-108HPRT92629.htm}}</ref> This encouraged millions of American families to move out of urban apartments and into suburban homes.<ref>{{cite book|author=Jackson, Kenneth T.|title=Crabgrass Frontier: The Suburbanization of the United States|url-access=registration|year=1985|publisher=New York: Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-503610-7|url=https://archive.org/details/crabgrassfrontie00jackrich/page/206}}</ref>

Another provision was known as the 52–20 clause for unemployment. Unemployed war veterans would receive $20 once a week for 52 weeks for up to one year while they were looking for work. Less than 20 percent of the money set aside for the 52–20 Club was distributed. Rather, most returning servicemen quickly found jobs or pursued higher education.

The recipients did not pay any income tax on the GI benefits, since they were not considered earned income.<ref>{{cite book|author=Ellsworth Harvey Plank|title=Public Finance|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mIPQAAAAMAAJ|year=1953|page=234}}</ref>

The G.I. Bill received criticism for directing some funds to [[For-profit higher education in the United States|for-profit educational institutions]]. The G.I. Bill was racially discriminatory, as it was intended to accommodate [[Jim Crow laws]]. Due to the discrimination by local and state governments, as well as by private actors in housing and education, the G.I. Bill failed to benefit African Americans as it did with white Americans. Columbia University historian [[Ira Katznelson]] described the G.I. Bill as [[Affirmative action in the United States|affirmative action]] for whites.<ref>ra Katznelson, [https://books.google.com/books?id=Lw5xzMyzE5AC&dq=ewer+than+100+of+the+67%2C000+mortgages+insured+by+the+G.I.+Bill+supported+home+purchases+by+nonwhites&pg=PA140  ''When Affirmative Action Was White''], W. W. Norton & Co., 2005, p. 140.</ref> The G.I. Bill has been criticized for increasing racial wealth disparities.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Darity, William A. Jr.|url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/1119767347|title=From here to equality : reparations for Black Americans in the twenty-first century|publisher=University of North Carolina Press|year=2020|isbn=978-1-4696-5497-3|oclc=1119767347}}</ref>

The original G.I. Bill ended in 1956.<ref>{{citation|title=History And Timeline|publisher=U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs|url=https://benefits.va.gov/gibill/history.asp}}</ref> A variety of benefits have been available to military veterans since the original bill, and these benefits packages are commonly referred to as updates to the G.I. Bill.

===After World War II===

A greater percentage of [[Vietnam veteran]]s used G.I. Bill education benefits (72 percent)<ref name=Routledge>{{cite book|title=Student Veterans and Service Members in Higher Education|author1=Jan Arminio|author2=Tomoko Kudo Grabosky|author3=Josh Lang|publisher=Routledge|series=Key Issues on Diverse College Students|year=2015|page=12|location=New York|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=t1mcBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA12|isbn=9781317810568}}</ref> than World War II veterans (49 percent)<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.benefits.va.gov/gibill/history.asp|publisher=U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs|title=History and Timeline - Education and Training|access-date=February 3, 2019}}</ref> or [[Korean War]] veterans (43 percent).<ref name=Routledge />

====Canada====
Canada operated a similar program for its World War II veterans, with a similarly beneficial economic impact.<ref>{{cite journal |first1=Thomas |last1=Lemieux |first2=David |last2=Card |title=Education, earnings, and the 'Canadian GI Bill' |journal=Canadian Journal of Economics |year=2001 |volume=34 |issue=2 |pages=313–344 |doi=10.1111/0008-4085.00077 |s2cid=154642103 |url=http://www.nber.org/papers/w6718.pdf }}</ref>