CONNERS CRAFTS GI BILL FOR NEW JERSEY VETS

Measure Would Expand Educational Assistance for Undergraduate & Graduate Studies

(TRENTON) - Assemblyman Jack Conners has introduced legislation that would expand affordable higher educational opportunities for New Jersey's returning wartime soldiers.           

"New Jersey veterans who have risked their lives for our country deserve every opportunity upon their return home to pursue a higher education to ensure that they have a successful future," said Conners (D-Camden), chairman of the Assembly Military and Veterans' Affairs Committee. 

"By expanding opportunities afforded under the GI Bill, New Jersey would be at the forefront of national efforts to provide our servicemen and women with an affordable college education."

Conners' legislation (A-2518) - called the New Jersey GI Bill -- would enable men and women who served on active duty or a reserve unit in the United States Armed Forces, the National Guard on or after the September 11 attacks, to attend a state institution of higher learning at a cost of up to $50 per credit for up to 16 credits per semester.  The legislation would help veterans' stretch the value of their $12,000 federal tuition grants to cover all or most of their higher education costs. 

The measure would enable veterans to be eligible for 15 years following their discharge to pursue an associate's, bachelor's, graduate or professional degree at any of the state's public colleges or universities.  The bill also would extend the same opportunity to the spouses of service members who were killed in the line of duty, went missing in action or who have been taken as prisoners of war. 

"The New Jersey GI Bill would modernize an American tradition that has enabled generations of New Jersey veterans to obtain a college degree," said Conners.  "The brave men and women who have donned US military uniforms deserve all of the help we can muster to provide them with assistance in pursuing their degrees."

Assemblyman Conners said he crafted the measure after learning that the federal GI Bill fails to cover an average of two-thirds of undergraduate college expenses. 

The GI Bill was instituted at the end of World War II, sending nearly 8 million American military of its veterans to college or training programs.  It is largely credited with helping to develop the middle class in the United States and has helped send generations of military families to college.

The measure has been referred to the Assembly Military and Veterans' Affairs Committee for further consideration.

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