In Defense of the GI Bill

In an otherwise admirable article, “Reckoning With Wealth,” Kate Poole ’09 goes off the rails by attacking the GI Bill (the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944), which expired in 1956.

The bill provided low-cost loans to buy a house or start a business or farm, and payments to attend high school, college, or vocational school. By 1956, 7.8 million veterans had used the GI Bill’s educational benefits. 

Historians and economists judge the GI Bill a major political and economic success, particularly compared to the shabby treatment of veterans after World War I.