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VETERANS POST
by Freddy Groves
If you’re in school and were about to lose half of your VA education housing benefits at the end of last month due to remote classes, you’re safe. Congress pushed through the REMOTE (Responsible Education Mitigating Option and Technical Extensions) Act, and it’s going to cover you for the next six months.
The problem has been attending classes in person versus taking classes remotely. If you typically attend via remote classes, your housing allowance was always half that of in-person students. The pandemic landed, and with that colleges and schools went remote last year, which threatened to halve the benefit money of in-person students forced into remote classes. Congress saw that and extended the full coverage until December.
They recently stepped in again. Now you’ll be covered until summer – while schools sort out whether they’re bringing students back into the classroom for the January-May semester, keeping everyone at home again or a combination of the two. As is typical of the pandemic era, even if you’re currently attending in-person classes, your school might shift to remote at any time.
You and the 55,000 other student veterans potentially impacted by those reduced housing benefits can thank Nevada Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto and others for introducing the bill and pushing it to become law.
Not a student? Have you decided to sit out the shaky job market and go back to school or aim for a new trade? Start with an intro to your veterans’ education benefits: www.va.gov/education. Scroll down and click on the Eligibility link. Then click on the GI Bill Comparison Tool on the right and learn what programs and education benefits are available for you. Different programs have different benefits, so study those first to see which might be the best fit. If you need help sorting it all out, call the GI Bill Hotline at 888-GIBILL-1 (888-442-4551).
© 2022 King Features Synd., Inc.
