Chapter IV EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS OF THE THE ADMINISTRATION of reliefs and benefits for former members of the military, and their dependents, is entrusted to the Veterans' Administration. Laws provide for compensations, pensions, loan guarantees, life insurance, death benefits, medical care, and substantial programs of vocational rehabilitation and education. BASIC LEGISLATION RELATING TO VOCATIONAL REHABILITATION AND EDUCATION The basic acts upon which the vocational rehabilitation and education training programs rest are: (a) Public Law 16, Seventy-eighth Congress, as amended; and (b) Public Law 346, Seventy-eighth Congress, as amended. Under Public Law 16, the Vocational Rehabilitation Act, the Veterans' Administration prescribes, provides, and supervises a program of vocational rehabilitation for disabled veterans of World War II. Its purpose is to restore employability lost because of handicaps resulting from a service-incurred compensable disability. The program covers each step in the rehabilitation process from initial counseling of the veteran to his placement in a suitable job, if possible. Under Public Law 346, the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, the Veterans' Administration provides a program of education or training which makes it possible for an eligible veteran to pursue a course of his own choice in any approved school or job-training establishment which will accept him, subject to the prohibitions in Public Law 862, Eightieth Congress, explained below. RECENT AMENDMENTS Two laws enacted in 1948 and 1949 affect the administration of the program of vocational services under the Vocational Rehabilitation Act and the program of education and training under the Servicemen's Readjustment Act. Public Law 862, effective July 1, 1948, which amended Public Law 346, prohibited the payment of tuition, fees, or subsistence allowances from funds made available to the Veterans' Administration by this law, for any course elected or commenced by a veteran subsequent to July 1, 1948, under Public Law 346, which is determined by the Administrator to be avocational or recreational. It provided further that education or training to teach a veteran to fly or related aviation courses in connection with his present or contemplated business or occupation shall not be considered recreational or avocational. Public Law 877, effective September 1, 1948, provided for additional dependency compensation for veterans whose service-connected disabilities were 60 percent or more. These increases in dependency compensation applied both to compensation at war and at peacetime rates. Veterans eligible for this increased compensation who were in training under Public Law 16 or Public Law 346 would choose either the new rates under the act plus the subsistence allowance for a veteran without dependents under Public Law 16 or Public Law 346 without the additions granted under the act, plus the subsistence allowances provided by Public Law 346, as amended, whichever benefit was the greater. Public Law 571 (81st Cong.), passed June 23, 1950, provides that, "In the computation of such estimated cost of teaching personnel and supplies for instruction in the case of any college of agriculture and mechanic arts, no reduction shall be made by reason of payments to such college from funds," received pursuant to the Morrill Act of 1862. Also, "in the computation of such estimated cost of teaching personnel and supplies for instruction in the case of any nonprofit educational institution, no reduction shall be made by reason of any payments to such institution from State or municipal or other nonFederal public funds, or from private endowments or gifts or other income from nonpublic sources." These provisions will allow the Veterans' Administration to make future allowances for veterans' tuition at rates which exceed some calculated in past years. Public Law 610 (81st Cong.), passed July 13, 1950, and known as the Veterans' Education and Training Amendments of 1950, provides additional regulations pertaining to the selection of certain courses, to approval of certain institutions, and to the definition of "customary cost of tuition." TRAINING FACILITIES AND CONTRACTS Vocational rehabilitation of disabled veterans under Public Law 16 and the education and training of veterans under Public Law 346 are provided by the Veterans' Administration through the use of approved colleges, universities, professional and technological schools, public and private trade and vocational schools, junior colleges, secondary schools, and in business or industrial establishments. In providing this education and training for veterans, the Veterans' Administration has not established any training facilities. It has adopted the policy of using existing facilities which have been determined to be qualified and equipped to train veterans. Under Public Law 346, the appropriate approving agencies of the various States determine the adequacy of schools and training establishments and provide the Veterans' Administration regional offices with lists of such approvals. The Veterans' Administration regional offices determine the adequacy of all facilities for the vocational rehabilitation of disabled veterans under Public Law 16 and may approve additional facilities under Public Law 346 when necessary. Although the Administrator has the authority to approve facilities under Public Law 346, he has not exercised this authority for schools offering residence and correspondence instruction. All training under both Public Laws 16 and 346 in Federal agencies is approved by the Veterans' Administration. At present, agreements for such training are in effect with the Departments of the Army, Navy, Air Force, Interior, and Agriculture and with the Division of Medicine and Surgery of the Veterans' Administration. At the end of June 1949, a total of 641,383 establishments were approved for on-the-job training to veterans under Public Laws 16 and 346. Thus, through the use of diversified establishments, thousands of opportunities for on-the-job training were made available to veterans in occupations of the building trades, sales and service organizations, public utilities, communications, aviation, automotive industries, manufacturing, and many others. In addition to direct reimbursement to approximately 25,000 public and private schools for the training of veterans during the 1948-49 school year, the Veterans' Administration reimbursed 43 States, Puerto Rico, and Hawaii under contracts negotiated pursuant to authority contained in Public Law 679, Seventy-ninth Congress, for expenses incurred by them in connection with the inspection, approval, and supervision of on-the-job training establishments. Relative to institutional on-farm training of veterans, as provided under Public Law 377, Eightieth Congress, 34 contracts were negotiated during the 1946-47 school year with individual States and 4 with Territories. These contracts provided in each case that the State or Territory administer the program at a uniform rate for each school involved. In other States individual contracts were negotiated with 1,430 schools for institutional on-farm training of veterans. In addition to the above, there were also 11,770 contracts in force at the end of 1949 with institutions providing education and training and vocational rehabilitation to veterans. There were also 166 contracts in force with institutions offering instruction by correspondence, of which 77 were colleges and universities, and 89 were trade and industrial, business, and professional schools. COUNSELING AND VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE During the 1948-49 school year, the Veterans' Administration provided continual vocational guidance for disabled veterans who applied for vocational rehabilitation under Public Law 16, assisting them in the selection of occupational objectives suitable to their interests, aptitudes, and abilities and in the selection of training courses to prepare them for employment in such occupations. Counseling services were provided for each veteran on an individual basis in accordance with modern and approved techniques in vocational guidance and applied psychology. While giving priority to disabled veterans in the scheduling of counseling services, the Veterans' Administration also provided educational and vocational guidance for those veterans who requested such services under the provisions of Public Law 346, as amended. NUMBERS IN TRAINING Figures pertaining to the education of veterans are now available for 6 fiscal years. The largest number of veterans taking training during the 1948-49 school year was reached on April 30, 1949, when 2,563,834 were enrolled. This was 91.5 percent of the all-time high of 2,801,687 veterans reported at the end of December 1947. The numbers of veterans associated with various levels and programs of education are discussed in the annual reports of the Administrator of Veterans' Affairs. These reports show that about 35 percent of the veterans have been taking courses in institutions of higher education. Numbers and percents for each type of training pursued are presented in table 27. On June 22, 1950, the Veterans' Administration released the following figures on the total number of students receiving training under the GI Bill: Some 7,000,000 ex-servicemen and women, at some time or another, have attended school or trained on-the-job or on-the-farm under the law's educational provisions. This program so far has cost more than $10 billion for tuition, supplies, and subsistence allowances. All together, the veterans spent a total of 95,000,000 man-months in the classroom, at the work bench, and on the farm, or an average of about 15 months of training per veteran. Only 4 percent of all veterans who have been in training—or around 300,000— have exhausted their entitlement to further GI bill training. Under the law, most veterans must start their courses by July 25, 1951, if they want to continue on after that date. The final cut-off, for most veterans, comes on July 25, 1956. Table 27.-AVERAGE NUMBER OF VETERANS ENROLLED IN VARIOUS EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS OFFERED BY THE VETERANS' ADMINISTRATION IN 1949 1 I Data taken from the 1949 Annual Report of the Administrator of Veterans' Affairs. SUBSISTENCE AND EDUCATION Allowances for subsistence of Veterans are given in table 28 together with figures showing the amounts for education. The figures indicate that the subsistence allowances constitute the major cost of the total program. Under Public Law 16, an average of 81.0 percent has been expended for subsistence of veterans and their families, while under Public Law 346, 69.9 percent is for subsistence. The remaining portions are for tuition, equipment, supplies, and materials. Table 29 provides detailed figures pertaining to the veterans education program in the States for 1948-49. A summary of similar figures for the past 6 years is given in table 28. Table 28.-NUMBERS OF VETERANS IN TRAINING AND EXPENDITURES FOR VOCATIONAL REHABILITATION AND FOR EDUCATION AND TRAINING, 1943-44-1948-49 1 |