A Study On The Development Of American Veterans' Educational Benefits Policy

The Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944 is a watershed in US history, which is considered by many scholars as the best decision ever made by US government. Proceeding from the decision-making process of the Act, the present dissertation gives a systematic study of American Veterans'Educational Benefits Policy in terms of its formation and development in the past 60 odd years.The dissertation is made up of three parts:The first part gives a historical analysis to the formation and development of American Veterans'Educational Benefits Policy.Firstly, the dissertation looks into the historical background against which the Policy was formulated. The study argues that only after World Warâ…¡has US government adopted policies concerning the educational benefits of veterans, despite the country's tradition of valuing education and veterans'welfare. The failure of traditional policies, such as Military Bounty Land, Veterans Preference in the Civil Service Recruitment and economic subsidies, forced the federal government to explore new approaches to accommodate veterans'benefits. Under this circumstance, the government recognized the special significance of education, esp. higher education as components of social welfare in this regard. After 300 years'development from 9 mission schools in the colonial period, US higher education became ready to support the federal government as a policy tool with its expanded functions, ever increasing awareness to serve the society and its contact with US military.Secondly, the study focuses on the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944. After elaborating on the formation process and main contents of the Act, the dissertation discusses the standards, procedure and amendments of educational benefits. Importance is attached to the study of the radical change brought about by veterans'educational benefits to US higher education. The study argues that the educational benefits given to veterans by the government caused not only the steep expansion but also essential change of US higher education within a short period. The arrival of 2 million odd veterans have changed the gender composition of the college students and at the same time altered the public attitude towards married students. Besides, the Act sets the foundation for abolishing segregation in higher education. It entitled the right to be educated to almost every veteran with no difference concerning races. The veterans were also given the right to choose universities and majors. This exerted great impact on the separate but equal principle universally existed then and made preparation for the abolishment of segregation later on.Thirdly, the dissertation studies the development of the policy in the following 60 years. The study argues that the later acts of this kind, such as the Veterans'Readjustment Assistance Act of 1952 and the Veterans Readjustment Benefits Act of 1966, basically followed the pattern of the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944 taking educational benefits as service compensation welfare. The adoption of All-Voluntary Force system in 1970s greatly influenced veterans'educational benefits policy of US. Since the Veterans'Educational Assistance Act of 1984, known as the Montgomery GI Bill later, veterans'educational benefits have become an important approach to attract excellent young people to join US military.The second part summarizes the features of American Veterans'Educational Benefits Policy and gives it a theoretical analysis and interpretation.Study argues that after 60 years, the veterans'educational benefits policy, which has exerted a profound influence on US society, has not been strictly defined by any literature. The phenomenon is closely related to US legal system and tradition, and can be stated as political embodiment of case law tradition. What's more, effective veterans'welfare feedback mechanism, esp. the non-governmental organizations of veterans as interest groups, and the permanent parliamental establishments for veterans concerned affairs, guaranteed that the relevant acts could be amended in time. American Veterans'Educational Benefits Policy played a positive role in maintaining political stability and facilitating social integration of US, and directly accelerated the expansion of US higher education and boosted the formation of the Big Government to some extent.With an insight of professionalism, the dissertation gives a theoretical analysis to American Veterans'Educational Benefits Policy. The author believes that the rise of professionalism is an important feature of the post-industrial society. In a professionalism-dominating society, the after-service arrangement is the second professionalizing process of the military professionals. Whether the process can be recognized by the society determines whether the veterans can successfully return to the society. The essence of American Veterans'Educational Benefits Policy is to give play to the universities as profession subscribers in a society of professionalism, and help the veterans realize the second professionalizing process by generally accepted means, higher education, and come back to social lives.The third part briefly outlines the present approaches to after-service arrangement of China and analyzes the debate on'Veteran assumes the office of justice'through case studies. The author points out that the root of difficulties of China's after-service arrangement lies in the fact that the second professionalizing process of Chinese veterans which is mainly based on governmental instructions can hardly accepted by civil professionals.After the comparison between the development of Chinese military and higher education and the survey over the academic credentials of Chinese veterans and the revenue of Chinese government, the dissertation comes to the following conclusion: It has become a highly feasible option for Chinese government in the early 21st century to assist the veterans to receive higher education.