Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

On August 1, 2009 the Post-9/11 Educational Assistance Act of 2008, known as the Post-9/11 GI Bill, became the new standard in education benefits for veterans. As a result, Post-9/11 veterans experienced the most generous and profound change in education benefits since the inception of the GI Bill during World War II. The Post-9/11 GI Bill provided a comprehensive education benefits package that extended beyond veterans to include Reservists, National Guard Members, active-duty service members, and their families. Across the nation veterans who served in the Post-9/11 era responded by utilizing veteran education benefits in record numbers. Between 2008 and 2010, when the Post-9/11 GI Bill was fully implemented, the number of beneficiaries grew from approximately 541,000 to 800,000.

The Post-9/11 GI Bill provided an unprecedented educational benefits package for active duty veterans. However, the initial increase in GI bill claims was met with confusion and delayed payments. Greater education benefits lead to greater program participation and thus increased college enrollments. Although research has shown that participation overall has increased, as a result of the Post-9/11 GI Bill, participation across racial groups has been largely overlooked. This study extends the current literature by estimating the impact of the Post-9/11 GI Bill on college enrollments among veterans well beyond its initial implementation in 2009 and examines the heterogeneous effects on African American and Hispanic veterans.

The results suggest that the Post-9/11 GI Bill increased the likelihood of college enrollment by 4 percentage points among veterans. A triple-differences model was used to evaluate the heterogeneous effect of the Post-9/11 GI Bill on African American and Hispanic veterans. The Post-9/11 GI Bill is shown to have a larger effect on African American veterans relative to White veterans. The Post-9/11 GI Bill increased the likelihood of college enrollment for African American veterans 4.3 percentage points greater than White veterans. A $10,000 increase in veterans’ education benefits increased the likelihood of college enrollment for African American and Hispanic veterans by 8 and 7 percentage points respectively. This research demonstrates that the increased generosity of veterans’ education benefits under the Post-9/11 GI Bill disproportionately increased college enrollments for African-American veterans relative to White veterans but not Hispanic veterans relative to White veterans. These results further suggest that military service and veterans’ education benefits play a positive role in the efforts to reduce racial and ethnic disparities in higher education between African-Americans and Whites.