When President Roosevelt signed the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944, it was designed to ensure that veterans returning from World War II would have a range of benefits that would allow them to reintegrate into civilian life and make up for the time they’d spent away. Since then, that bill—better known as the “GI Bill”—has gone through multiple iterations to account for changing times while maintaining support for servicemen and women, their families, and other beneficiaries.
From the first version of the bill, one of the most popular benefits that veterans have tapped into has been access to education, from high schools to universities to vocational training. For instance, according to the U.S. Department of Defense, about 8 million veterans took advantage of the bill, and U.S. college and university degree-holders more than doubled between 1940 and 1950.
