Fund Helps Fill Gap Between GI Bill, Today's College Costs

Billionaire financier Jerome Kohlberg, a World War II veteran who went to college on the original GI Bill, started the Fund for Veterans' Education with $4 million.

He says today's Montgomery GI Bill offers a fraction of the money needed to attend most four-year colleges.

"When my service in the U.S. Navy ended after World War II, the people of this country welcomed me home with a wonderful opportunity -- the GI Bill of 1944," Kohlberg said in a statement.

"This unprecedented opportunity not only afforded me and millions of other Americans a college education but also transformed American society as a whole. Indeed, the GI Bill has been called by many the greatest single investment our country has ever made in its citizenry."

The GI Bill put college and homeownership within reach of millions of returning veterans who most likely would not have had the opportunity before the war, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Millions of vets who would have flooded the job market opted instead for education. By the time the original GI Bill ended on July 25, 1956, 7.8 million of 16 million World War II veterans had participated in an education or training program. From 1944 to 1952, the VA also backed nearly 2.4 million home loans for World War II veterans, the veterans department says.

The GI Bill paid tuition, room and board, and provided a stipend for all World War II veterans.

The 1984 Montgomery GI Bill provides about $6,000 a year, while attending most colleges costs from $15,000 to $20,000 a year, according to the office of Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va.

Webb met with Iraq war veterans Dean and Dustin Meadows last week in Washington and said the scholarship fund underscores the need for a new GI bill.

He has introduced the Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act of 2007, which would match the benefits World War II veterans received.

"If we believe that our veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars are the new 'greatest generation,' we must recognize their education as a cost of war and offer them the benefits they deserve," Webb said.