The GI Bill

After the end of World War II, American soldiers anxiously awaited their return to civilian life. Those stationed in Europe, Asia, and the Pacific hoped they would soon be reunited with their families and quickly employed in the bustling industrial economy of the United States.

The US government was anxious, too, but for a different reason. World War II had revived American prosperity after more than a decade of depression, and the government was desperate to fend off the economic turmoil that 15 million veterans reentering the workforce might wreak.

Hoping to provide servicemen and women with a measure of financial security upon their return (and, hopefully, siphon a substantial proportion of veterans away from the labor market and into educational programs), President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Servicemen's Readjustment Act on June 22, 1944. Commonly known as the GI Bill, the Servicemen's Readjustment Act offered veterans a year of unemployment pay after their homecoming; guaranties for loans to purchase homes, businesses, or farms; and tuition and living stipends for college or vocational programs.

Not everyone greeted this plan with enthusiasm. Accustomed to a pre-war society where college education was reserved for the elite, the president of the University of Chicago griped that "Education is not a device for coping with mass unemployment . . . colleges and universities will find themselves converted into educational hobo jungles."$^1$start superscript, 1, end superscript

But this judgment proved premature. The GI Bill was an unprecedented success, sending eight million veterans to school in the decade after World War II and completely reinventing American higher education. Despite the hefty price tag of the program - about $14.5 billion dollars - veterans who took advantage of the educational subsidy earned, on average, $10,000-15,000 more per year than those who did not, generating ten times the cost of the program in tax revenue. Consequently, some analysts have called it "the best investment the US government has ever made."$^2$squared

In 1944, FDR was running for reelection, seeking an unprecedented fourth term as president of the United States. During the Great Depression, he had won broad popular support through the New Deal, which sought to use government programs to ensure baseline economic security for the American people. During his State of the Union address in 1944, Roosevelt proposed a radical "economic bill of rights" that would guarantee American citizens employment, health care, education, and housing.$^3$cubed In the midst of the wartime economic boom, however, this promise of security failed to animate voters as it had a decade earlier.

What did get their attention was Roosevelt's promise that returning GIs (a nickname for soldiers derived from their "general issue" uniforms) would be entitled to certain perks for their faithful service. With the assistance of the American Legion, the economic bill of rights was revamped as the GI Bill of Rights.

The GI Bill, as it was abbreviated, had three key components:

1) Educational support. Veterans were entitled to $500 per year toward tuition and as well as a living stipend of $65-90 per month depending on whether the veteran had a family to support during his or her schooling.

2) Unemployment benefits. The GI Bill stipulated that veterans could receive $20 per week for a year while looking for work. More than eight million veterans took advantage of this benefit.

3) Loan guaranties. Although the government did not give veterans money to purchase homes, businesses, or farms, it pledged to back veterans' borrowing, making it much easier for them to get credit.

The GI Bill also provided for veterans' medical care, even building new hospitals to meet the increased demand.

From 1945 to 1956, about 50% of the American veterans who served in World War II availed themselves of one or more aspects of the GI Bill. 2.2 million veterans went to college, 3.5 million went to technical or vocational school, and 700,000 took instruction in agriculture. The number of Americans who earned college degrees more than doubled before and after the war, from just over 200,000 in 1940 to nearly half a million in 1950.$^4$start superscript, 4, end superscript

The GI Bill expanded American university instruction from a curriculum focused solely on the liberal arts to one encompassing a range of career paths, including science, business, and engineering. Historian James T. Patterson has called it "the most significant development in the modern history of American education."$^5$start superscript, 5, end superscript

The government guaranty for home and business loans also prompted an economic boom, financing the construction of thousands of new homes, like those that sprang up in suburbs such as Levittown, New York.

Overall, the GI Bill was a major factor driving the prosperity of the postwar era. Not only did it save the American economy from a potential unemployment epidemic, it was also the gift that kept on giving: as more Americans took advantage of higher education, they earned higher wages, and could therefore pump more money into the economy by buying homes and consumer goods.

Imagine you were returning from World War II. Which of the GI Bill benefits do you think would be most important to you and why?

Why do historians believe the GI Bill to be so transformative in American education?

How was the passage of the GI Bill related to the rise of America suburbia?