[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 80 (Wednesday, June 22, 1994)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: June 22, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                        GI BILL 50TH ANNIVERARY

                                 ______


                          HON. WILLIAM D. FORD

                              of michigan

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, June 22, 1994

  Mr. FORD of Michigan. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to commemorate the 
50th anniversary of the signing of the GI bill.
  Originally termed the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, the GI 
bill was a gamble which paid off for our Nation by providing education 
and opportunities to millions of young veterans. Before the passage of 
the GI bill, only about 10 percent of high school graduates attended 
college. Since then, about 50 percent of high school graduates attended 
college. Since then, about 50 percent have gone on to higher education, 
including 20 million Americans whose educations were paid for by the GI 
bill. Never before in its history has the Federal Government made as 
dramatic and sweeping an investment in itself and its people.
  I was one of millions of World War II veterans whose lives were 
changed dramatically by this revolutionary program. At its 
establishment, the GI bill provided $500 per year for educational 
expenses which was sufficient to ensure that I never received a bill 
for tuition. I could not have gone to college, much less law school, 
without the Government supported program which allowed me to become the 
first person in my family to receive a college degree.
  When this groundbreaking legislation was being considered, many in 
Congress expressed serious concern that it would prove too expensive 
and would lower standards in education. These same arguments are heard 
today in opposition to other education initiatives. The GI bill has 
succeeded in providing a stimulus to learning which has impacted the 
prosperity and productivity of our Nation and its citizens. Studies 
have shown that for every dollar which the Government spent on 
education under the GI bill, the Nation has received at least $5 worth 
of benefits in reutrn--an astounding dividend on its investment. None 
of these benefits would have been possible, however, if Congress had 
not been able to overcome its misgivings and pass the legislation 
unanimously in both the House and the Senate. By taking a risk, our 
Nation was able to establish an initiative which has done more to 
empower and educate our citizens than any other program.
  Mr. Speaker, I would like to request permission to include in the 
Record the text of an editorial which appeared in today's New York 
times commemorating the anniversary of this historic program.

                [From the New York Times, June 22, 1994]

                       The G.I. Bill, 50 Years On

       Not all the great victories in World War II took place on 
     the battlefield. What proved a landmark triumph for America 
     and its fighting forces had its start in the White House 50 
     years ago today when President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed 
     the G.I. Bill of Rights. Few laws have done so much for so 
     many, yet the anniversary of this political and social 
     counterpart of D-Day has been all but forgotten.
       Formally known as the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 
     1944, this innovative bill was ambitious in design and 
     laudable in purpose: to help 10 million veterans, and their 
     country, adapt to peacetime. The measure offered guaranteed 
     loans to buy a home, farm or business; 52 weeks of 
     unemployment insurance of $20 per week, plus job placement 
     services; and most enduringly important, up to four years of 
     Federal aid for learning or training at any level, from grade 
     to graduate school.
       And so Americans who never dared dream of attending college 
     joined a flood that crested in 1946-1947, when 2.5 million 
     veterans qualified for $500 or more in annual tuition, plus 
     monthly allowances of $65 for single students, $90 for 
     married. Almost overnight on U.S. campuses, Quonset huts and 
     prefab houses bloomed to accommodate this influx. In a 
     stroke, the legislation kept a demobilizing army from 
     engulfing the labor force, threw open cloistered academic 
     doors and offered energizing plasma to schools of every kind, 
     public or private.
       The special genius of the law was that it bypassed old 
     arguments over states' rights and tax aid to religious 
     institutions by extending its benefits to individual 
     citizens, who had wide freedom of choice. This notable home-
     front victory was chiefly the work of President Roosevelt. As 
     early as November 1942, he had asked a panel of educators to 
     design a comprehensive program for ex-servicemen and women. 
     In summer 1943, in a message to Congress and in a radio 
     fireside chat he urged approval of the panel's core 
     recommendations, and got vital support from the otherwise 
     staunchly conservative American Legion.
       Even so, the school provisions were assailed by John 
     Rankin, the race-baiting Mississippi Democrat who headed the 
     House Veterans Committee; he protested that blacks were 
     incapable of benefiting from college. Less predictably, 
     President Robert Maynard Hutchins of the University of 
     Chicago gloomily warned that ``colleges and universities will 
     find themselves converted into intellectual hobo jungles. And 
     veterans unable to get work and equally unable to resist 
     putting pressures on colleges and universities will find 
     themselves educational hoboes.''
       Such prophecies were wildly off the mark. So popular and 
     successful was the law that many of its benefits were 
     extended to Korea and Vietnam veterans, and are now available 
     to those who serve in peacetime. As a Federal stimulus to 
     learning and opportunity, the G.I. Bill ranks with the Land 
     Grant College Act of 1862, which promoted the growth of the 
     state universities.
       It is useful to be reminded periodically that Federal 
     spending is not always wasteful, and that taxes, to 
     paraphrase Mr. Justice Holmes, can be the agent of 
     civilization.

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