Examining Executive Order #13607 and Its Impact on Schools and Veterans
May 16, 2012
STATEMENT OF
RYAN M. GALLUCCI,
DEPUTY DIRECTOR
NATIONAL
LEGISLATIVE SERVICE
VETERANS OF
FOREIGN WARS OF THE UNITED STATES
BEFORE THE
VETERANS’
AFFAIRS SUBCOMMITTEE
ON ECONOMIC
OPPORTUNITY
UNITED STATES
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
WITH RESPECT TO
Examining
Executive Order #13607 and Its Impact on Schools and Veterans
WASHINGTON,
D.C. MAY 16, 2012
MR.
CHAIRMAN AND MEMBERS OF THE SUBCOMMITTEE:
On
behalf of the more than 2 million men and women of the Veterans of Foreign Wars
of the U.S. (VFW) and our Auxiliaries, I would like to thank you for the
opportunity to testify on the President’s recent executive order, “Establishing
Principles of Excellence for Educational Institutions Serving Service Members,
Veterans, Spouses and Other Family Members.” The VFW has been one of the
leading voices on Capitol Hill working to ensure that our service members and
student-veterans receive the educational opportunities they have been promised,
and we are happy to see that this subcommittee takes this issue seriously.
A
recent Senate investigation and a series of GAO reports have indicated that
certain institutions of higher learning make a concerted effort to recruit
military and veteran students into their programs with no intention of
conferring relevant educational credentials. While arguments can be made as to
the validity of these claims, the fact remains that these reports have created
a perception in Washington that taxpayer dollars used to fund military and
veterans’ education programs have gone to waste and veterans are not receiving
the education we promised to them. During these difficult fiscal times, deficit
hawks in Washington have seized on this opportunity, looking for ways to scale
back these critical programs designed to mold a new generation of American
leaders. Last fall, both the House and Senate Veterans Affairs Committees asked
the Congressional Budget Office to score a series of scenarios to scale back
the Post-9/11 G.I. Bill, and included one such scenario as a potential
cost-savings measure in a “Four Points” letter to the Joint Select Committee on
Deficit Reduction. The U.S. Marine Corps also announced that it would pare down
its Tuition Assistance program – a decision that Marine Corps leaders later
rescinded. To the VFW, threats to the continued viability of the Post-9/11 G.I.
Bill and military tuition assistance programs are very real, which is why we
have encouraged the House, Senate and Administration to take quick, decisive
action.
On
April 27, the Administration took a bold first step in ensuring our veterans
receive the quality education we promised by signing Executive Order #13607,
and the VFW vocally supported this effort. Now, we encourage Congress to follow
the Administration’s lead and pass the education protection bills now before the
committees of jurisdiction.
Since
late last year, the VFW has consistently worked to build consensus among the
veterans’ community and various sectors of higher education to better
understand the educational landscape encountered by our student-veterans and to
improve the information with which potential student-veterans make academic
decisions. In January, the VFW spearheaded an effort calling on the House,
Senate and the Administration to improve front-end consumer education for
student-veterans and to codify complaint processes for student-veterans who
believe they were victims of fraud, waste or abuse. The letter, which was
co-signed by many of today’s key witnesses, served as one of the building
blocks of the executive order and has been submitted as an appendix to our
testimony today.
As
a direct result of this effort, bills have been drafted in both the House and
Senate that seek to codify exactly how VA can improve its consumer education
and consumer protection practices. Executive Order #13607 reflects many of the
ideas included in these bills, and the VFW believes it offers VA, Department of
Defense and Department of Education the opportunity to jump start their
collaborative efforts to better serve our nation’s student-veterans in advance
of these potential new laws. Some in Congress and in the media balked at the
executive order, but the VFW unequivocally supports the President’s efforts to
exert his authority over his executive agencies within the current limits of
the law.
From
conversations with VA and educational leaders leading up to April 27, the VFW
believes that many of the policy recommendations and principles outlined in
Executive Order #13607 are already in the works. The President’s message will
now serve as the impetus for agencies to act now.
Executive
action, by nature, can be very limited in scope and progress can be difficult
to assess. With this in mind, the VFW concurs with many of our veterans’
service organization partners that we must establish a formal advisory
committee among veterans’ advocates to routinely monitor progress on
implementation and hold agency officials accountable for shortcomings, similar
to the Advisory Committee on Veterans’ Entrepreneurship. We also encourage this
committee to host a subsequent hearing on Executive Order #13607 at the 90-day
mark from implementation, at which time VA, DOD and Department of Education can
provide specific details on progress.
As
VA, DOD, and Department of Education now must lay the groundwork for carrying
out Executive Order #13607, the VFW would like to explain the rationale behind
certain provisions of the executive order and how we believe the agencies and
schools should go about implementing them
First,
the VFW has heard concerns from schools over potential administrative hurdles
to comply with new “Principles of Excellence” established in the executive
order. Fortunately, the VFW believes that many of these principles will be
explicitly codified in the DOD Memorandum of Understanding now required for
schools to participate in the military’s tuition assistance program. With
schools already agreeing to comply with these new standards, the VFW recommends
that VA adopt similar principles and establish information-sharing protocols
with DOD to minimize the administrative burden for schools and ensure that
quality information is available across all departments. The VFW recognizes
that a failure to adhere to these new standards will not preclude schools from
their eligibility to receive G.I. Bill dollars. The role of State Approving
Agencies to inspect and approve academic programs must remain intact, and
schools will still be listed in the WEAMS database. However, VA will now have
the leverage to offer comprehensive information on schools and programs that
see the value in participating, offering better information with which
student-veterans can make a data-driven educational decision.
Second,
the executive order calls on VA to provide data comparison tools to
student-veterans prior to accessing G.I. Bill benefits through the eBenefits
portal. This is the direct result of a VFW recommendation. The VFW understands
that VA seeks to ensure that all beneficiaries will be enrolled in eBenefits;
meaning access to VONAPP and all benefit services will be conducted through the
secure server. This offers VA a unique opportunity to ensure that veterans have
access to quality information before they even start to fill out their online
application. However, the VFW must clarify that a simple link to the 200-plus
data points on College Navigator is insufficient to satisfy this data
comparison requirement. We argue that College Navigator is too difficult to
understand and most of the information available is completely irrelevant for a
potential student-veteran. The VFW recommends that VA identify at least five,
but no more than 10, specific data points with which veterans can compare
educational programs. We look forward to engaging with VA on exactly which data
points would be most beneficial to a potential student-veteran, and continuing
our discussions on how to best implement this provision of the executive order.
Third,
the VFW has heard concerns from schools about the proposed anonymous complaint
process for student-veterans, which we must address. The genesis of this
concept came from a meeting last fall where VA administrators admitted that the
agency lacked a formal complaint process for student-veterans who believed they
were victims of fraud, waste and abuse; and that VA lacked the ability to formally
track and resolve any such complaints. As a result, the VFW and our partners in
the veterans’ community called for a formal complaint process and responsible
redress mechanisms for student-veterans administered by VA. The VFW believes
this new complaint process can be easily integrated into the current
1-800-GIBILL-1 hotline and the eBenefits portal. To the VFW, the “anonymous” process only
means that a student’s personally-identifiable information (PII) must be
protected to ensure students will not face retribution from their school. This
is similar to Department of Education policies, which must, by law, similarly
protect student PII. However, the VFW believes that the VA must be able to
verify a complainant’s G.I. Bill status and enrollment status at an institution
before taking action on behalf of a veteran. The VFW also believes that the
formal complaint process must be conducted in a responsible manner, ensuring
that students have properly exercised other available avenues of recourse
before seeking VA intervention. The VFW suggests that VA establish a threshold
question asking student-veterans who seek to file a complaint whether or not
they have already sought to resolve their issue with their school
administrators. The VFW does not want to see a witch hunt against schools, but
we do believe that student-veterans are entitled to proper recourse through the
fiduciary of their benefit – VA.
Finally,
the VFW must address the issues facing State Approving Agencies (SAAs), who are
responsible for ensuring that only quality programs are approved for G.I. Bill
participation. This has been a sore point for the VFW since the implementation
of the Post-9/11 G.I. Bill and the subsequent changes to the traditional roles
of the SAAs. While the executive order calls for the role of SAAs to be
codified within the complaint process, the VFW believes more must be done to
ensure that the front-line troops in education accountability have the policies
and resources in place to do their jobs. The VFW calls on this committee to
host a subsequent hearing on the role of the SAAs to ensure that policies are
clear and relevant, to formally evaluate the SAAs’ relationship with VA, and to
ensure that proper resources are allocated to responsibly fulfill the mission
of the SAAs.
The
VFW recognizes that Executive Order #13607 is just the first step in ensuring
our student-veterans have the consumer education and consumer protection
resources they need to succeed in higher education. Executive orders can go
away. We still need protections outlined in code to ensure that we can best
serve our student-veterans. The Post-9/11 G.I. Bill stands to be a
transformative benefit for this generation of war-fighters, helping to mold our
nation’s Next Greatest Generation of leaders. We must protect this benefit at
all costs. Unfortunately, over the last few months, the VFW and our partners in
veterans’ advocacy have felt hamstrung by an overwhelming lack of quality information
on student-veterans to either confirm reports of fraud, waste and abuse, or to
demonstrate student-veteran success in G.I. Bill programs. Many of the
provisions of Executive Order #13607 and the bills currently before Congress
will help to gather this kind of data to help ensure future viability of the
program and continued student-veteran success in higher education. We hope that
the executive order will motivate Congress to quickly move legislation through
both the House and Senate to protect our nation’s investment and ensure success
for our student-veterans.
Mr.
Chairman, this concludes my statement and I am happy to answer any questions
the subcommittee may have.
Appendix:
President
Barack Obama
1600
Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington,
DC 20006
Dear Mr.
President:
On
behalf of the undersigned advocates in veterans’ education, it has come to our
attention that many veterans choosing to pursue higher education are actually
becoming victims of institutions that fail to fulfill their obligations to
educate veterans eligible for the Post-9/11 G.I Bill. In an effort to rein in bad actors across
all sectors of higher education, we urge your Administration and Congress to
develop and reform two key areas that will foster responsible decision-making
and protect veterans who seek to use their G.I. Bill benefits. At a minimum, we
ask you to respectfully consider these two ideas: Mandating upfront counseling
and developing a formal complaint process.
First,
we believe VA has an obligation to ensure veterans receive all of the educational
counseling to which they are entitled under Chapter 3697A of Title 38. VA must
mandate this kind of up-front counseling to student-veterans who use any
chapter of the G.I. Bill; particularly the robust Chapter 33 benefit. Only with
proper counseling can student-veterans make informed decisions about their
benefits and how best to meet their educational goals. Mandatory counseling
could be accomplished in a variety of ways, whether it is through the TAP
program, VA’s eBenefits portal or other available outlets; but the counseling
must take place before veterans choose to enroll in an academic program.
Veterans who wish to waive this counseling should still have this option
through an “opt-out” system during the G.I. Bill application process, but the
current “opt-in” system, which less than one percent of G.I. Bill beneficiaries
utilized in 2010, leaves many student-veterans inadequately prepared for
academic life.
Second,
to better understand the scope of problems facing today’s student-veterans, VA
must establish a system to process and track student complaints through
existing infrastructure at the VA call center, as well as an online portal,
where student-veterans can formally file complaints about benefits and report fraud,
waste, and abuse. Veteran complaints
should be assigned a case file number and tracked as VA works with State
Approving Agencies, accrediting agencies, individual schools, the Departments
of Education, Justice, Defense, and other agencies to find resolutions to their
problems. A clearing house for documented consumer complaints will allow VA and
other stakeholders to take decisive action against fraud, waste, or abuse when
necessary. Currently, student-veteran conflicts are resolved on an ad-hoc basis
with little communication among stakeholders.
Our
coalition thanks you for your attention to these issues, and we stand ready to
assist, ensuring that our brave service members receive the educational
opportunities they have earned. These
two proposals are critical first steps in accomplishing this goal, while
preserving student-veteran choice in the marketplace. Thank you for taking the lead on this
initiative and for your continued support of our armed forces and
veterans. We look forward to working
with you.
Sincerely,
Jerome
H. Sullivan
Executive
Director
American
Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers
Terry W.
Hartle
Senior
Vice President
American
Council on Education
Tim Tetz
Legislative
Director
American
Legion
Brian J.
Moran
Interim
President & CEO
General
Counsel
Association
of Private Sector Colleges and Universities
Tom
Tarantino
Deputy
Policy Director
Iraq and
Afghanistan Veterans of America
Joyce E.
Smith
Chief
Executive Officer
National
Association for College Admission Counseling
Chad
Schatz
President
National
Association of State Approving Agencies
Michael
Dakduk
Executive
Director
Student
Veterans of America
William
Pepicello Ph.D.
President
University
of Phoenix
Raymond C.
Kelly
Legislative
Director
Veterans
of Foreign Wars of the U.S.
Information
Required by Rule XI2(g)(4) of the House of Representatives
Pursuant
to Rule XI2(g)(4) of the House of Representatives, VFW has not received any
federal grants in Fiscal Year 2012, nor has it received any federal grants in
the two previous Fiscal Years.
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