Frontline did a great peice on these types of schools, people dropping 30k a year to get a degree that can land you 25k per year job

If you google just "GI Bill", the actuall VA page is the first link (non-ad link, anyway). If you google GI bill schools, than the GIbill.com link is first. So it seems to be a function of what search parameters you use. As far as GIbill.com exploiting the GI Bill program... Government programs attract shady businesses like moths to a flame. How is this any different from medical supply companies who bilk people on Medicare or grocery stores that "specialize" in food stamps and charge the food stamp maximum for various food items. I don't know if GI Bill exploitation is covered in the manditory pre-seperation training (like the Army's ACAP), but perhaps it should be. I would think that Sec. Shinseki, of all people, ought to have enough pull with the DOD to affect that sort of change. Or VA could add warnings to its various GI Bill literature. That would be pretty easy to do too.

The issue here becomes figuring out what the real problem is. Do we aim toward educating our Veterans to ensure they don't get taken advantage of or do we target VA to establish tighter controls on what schools and businesses are on their site? Ultimately, we need to frame the right problem to get at the best solution that takes care of our soldiers and veterans.

The two year public school I attend in Florida has been described as the second best education you can get in the state, with the best being at New College in Sarasota. It's shocking that neither school is listed on the website.

I wonder if the U.S. Government can "Eminent Domain" this domain.

Seriously though. There are a couple of ways to look at this. On the one hand, the folks who had the foresight to register this domain and have built it have a right to profit from it. That is the nature of our economic system. Not all for profit schools are a rip off. Are they more expensive? Well yeah. But that doesn't make them a rip off. For instance, some folks attend online classes because that is what works best for them. Making a blanket statement (implication) that they are getting ripped off is unfair.

The other way to look at it is, if a veteran can't make a simple calculation that a $30,000 tuition per year school (outside of selective private schools) is not as cost effective as a sub $4,000 per year state school, I have to wonder if that veteran is cut out to be in college. Hate to be harsh here, but not everyone should go to college. Do they think cost equals value? Do they confuse for profit with private? I don't know, but this is something the VA should probably try and find out.

No doubt DoD and the VA should do as much as they can to advise active duty and vets on the different options they have, but at some point personal responsibility has to enter the equation.

...for info on VA benefits, unfortunately. If you don't believe me, try calling their 1-800 number sometime.

Particularly for people on active duty who are going to school in their off time, it's amazing how few rules the VA has in place -- or at least has published. Active duty people on the Post 9/11 GI bill supposedly get a full ride on tuition, regardless of how expensive the tuition bill is. If those schools have also given a scholarship to the student, the VA benefit paid directly to the school shows up as "excess" money in their account, which can be refunded to the student (since there's no way to "give it back" to the VA) to bring the account balance back to zero (i.e., paid in full).

I know several officers (and spouses who received benefits transferred from their military spouse) who are getting paid thousands of dollars --on top of the full ride-- to go to grad school. Believe me, I'm not complaining -- but there are no rules to govern any of this, and all of it is being made up as the VA goes along. And the VA has no incentive to standardize this process or help the schools figure out what to do, because it's simply paying the tuition bills just like the law instructs them to do.