Military service honors this country, preserves our liberty, and deserves respect. In fact, when a service member is deployed or completes their service, she or he should return with the comfort of knowing that they have their civilian job to come back to. Simply put, employers should not be allowed to benefit from a service member’s hard work and sacrifice, only to shaft them when they return to civilian work. Not only is this a matter of right and wrong, it is the law. The USSERA In 1994, Congress passed into law the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA). Under this law, employers and prospective employers are prohibited from holding a person’s past, present, or future military service against them. This applies to decisions regarding hiring, firing, retention following service, promotions, pay-raises, and benefits. Significantly, if a service member is called upon to fulfill his or her military duty, their employer must retain…Read More
Veterans who serve our country with honor do not deserve to get ripped off. Unfortunately, since World War II, there has been a disturbing trend in for-profit colleges seeing uniformed service members as a source of easy money. This is because the G.I. Bill, created after the second World War, was established to provide tuition to veterans so they can get a college education. For-profit colleges have a special incentive to target veterans due to a loophole in the law, referred to as the 90/10 rule, which allows them to get significantly more Federal money per veteran student than they do for non-military students. Some proposed laws in Congress are being considered to protect our veterans. Protecting Veterans From School Closures Act Inspired by the closure of massive for-profit college ITT, Congressman Luke Messer has offered House Bill 1216, titled the Protecting Veterans from School Closures Act. When ITT closed, it left over 7,000 veterans…Read More
The risks and sacrifices that come with military service to our country deserve admiration and respect. Unfortunately, this is not always what our veterans, active military members, and their families receive. In fact, because of a loophole in the law, for-profit colleges have a huge financial incentive to potentially exploit veterans and some members of their families. In 2008, the legislature passed a G.I. Bill, meant to benefit veterans serving since September 11th by authorizing subsidies for them to seek college degrees. This was meant to repay veterans for their service and sacrifice by allowing them to attend a college of their choice. Unfortunately, no good deed goes unpunished as for-profit colleges quickly found a loophole in an existing law to exploit the G.I. Bill. Referred to as the 90/10 rule, this loophole allows for-profit colleges to count G.I. Bill money in order to get more federal funding from the Department of Education. So for…Read More
