OCR Text |
Show EDITORIAL: Digging Into The Gl's Pocket That 497,000 ex-service men, receiving their educations under the GI Bill of Rights, are being held accountable for overpayment overpay-ment of their subsistence allowances allow-ances is discouraging news. Somehow the report this crack down by the Veterans Administration, Adminis-tration, suggests carelessness, and since almost a half million individuals in-dividuals are involved the greater great-er laxity would appear to be on the part of the VA. Not that a half million men can't, collectively, make the same mistake, but in this instance in-stance and under the circumstances circum-stances the mathematical possibilities possi-bilities of such a thing happening happen-ing are remote. The remotness becomes even more real when the number of GI on-the-job trainees, from whom collections for overpayment will also be made, does not appear in the total to-tal of 497,000 students specified by the Veterans Administration. The GI Bill of Rights is one of the biggest administrative jobs ever undertaken by the United! States Government, and the constant con-stant changes in VA policy, regulations, reg-ulations, and shifting of personnel person-nel have not decreased the problem prob-lem of administration. A schedule sched-ule of employment for an on-the-job trainee, and pre'sumably the schedules governing GI students, stu-dents, can be valid today, and questionable tomorrow. This is not a case of speculation, but a fact with which at least a majority ma-jority of the veterans faced with repaying "government overdrafts" over-drafts" will agree. There can be no criticism of the GI Bill of Rights. In its category cat-egory it is as laudable as the Constitution of the United States. But where the latter has been administered with all necessary prudence and understanding, the former has been tossed about on a sea of administrative blunders. A skeptic need look no further than the recent VA discovery that 497,000 ex-soldiers, sailors and marines are now faced with repaying funds they had accepted accept-ed in good faith as a part of the educational opportunities guaranteed guar-anteed them by the United States Government. In Utah 2256 GI students, attending at-tending approved educational institutions in-stitutions have been warned by the Veterans Administration that they will have to make adjustments adjust-ments to the tune of $169,000 before be-fore they will be permitted to re-enter school. Letters advising the overpaid GIs of the mistake reads something like this: "You have been overpaid $ on your subsistence allowance. Your check for the current month is being applied to this account." 4 In simple terms the letter means that some GIs who had planned to continue their studies stud-ies will be prevented frpm returning re-turning to school until they have squared matters with the Veterans. Veter-ans. Administration. But more than this it means that through an administrative bull a number of GIs enrolled in school or engaged en-gaged in on-the-job training will become discouraged and "chuck" the whole thing as a bad job. A sound administrative policy would have prevented the reported re-ported overpayments. But until the Veterans Administration assumes as-sumes full responsibility for the GI Bill of Rights other boners will be made. For instance the State Department of Public Instruction In-struction is assigned certain schedule privileges, From this dual administrative policy confusion con-fusion is bound to result, with the GI student or trainee being I slowly strangled by red tape. |