Shortchanging the Vietvets

The nearly 3 million men who served in the Viet Nam War are entitled to educational benefits under the G.I.

Bill of Rights. But those benefits are 5 proving woefully inadequate. A World War II G.I. could get up to $500 for tuition at a college or university, plus a subsistence of at least $75 a month; that was sufficient in the late 1940s. Today's veteran receives $220 a month to cover tuition, books, fees and living expenses. Only for veterans at low-tuition state and community colleges is that amount even close to adequate. "The picture is bleak," says Maryland Senator Charles Mathias Jr., who has co-authored a bill that would raise the allowance to $250 and cover up to $600 in annual costs for tuition after the first $400. But even that increase is uncertain of Senate passage. Despite President Nixon's statement last March that "words of thanks are not enough," the Administration is unlikely to support that bill because it will add as much as $750 million to an inflated budget. As for the veterans' lobby, it is more interested in protecting the $8 billion a year that older ex-servicemen still get from Washington than in helping the Vietvets.

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