Education Toolkit for Veteran Friendly Colleges

Created by the American Council on Education (ACE), this online resource is designed to help institutions of higher education build effective programs for veteran students and share information. It highlights a variety of best practices and includes video clips, profiles of student veterans programs across the U.S., and a searchable database of tools and resources.

 

http://vetfriendlytoolkit.org/

Rod Davis, director, Veterans Support Office, The Texas A&M University System: One of our primary goals for the toolkit is to create a collaborative learning environment in which faculty, staff, and administrators share experiences, challenges, and victories in their journey to serve student veterans. To foster this learning environment, ACE will highlight one of our participating institutions in every newsletter.

“Universities and colleges seeking to start or upgrade their veterans support programs are encouraged to draw upon the experiences of successful programs elsewhere and on the recommendations found in the ACE Toolkit for Veteran Friendly Institutions, the Operation College Promise Field Guide, [see below] and similar models. It is also helpful to increase interaction with other providers through networking at state, regional, or national veterans service and administrator organizations and conferences. And always share. There’s so much to do, and every idea can be valuable whether generated at the smallest campus or the largest.

 

http://operationpromiseforservicemembers.com/OCP-FieldGuide-March2012.pdf

  http://www.operationpromiseforservicemembers.com/

 

Student Work-Study Allowance Program

http://www.gibill.va.gov/pamphlets/wkstud.htm

 

Veterans’ Jobs Bill Blocked in the Senate

September 19, 2012

By JENNIFER STEINHAUER

Eager to shoot down President Obama’s legislative agenda just weeks before the election, Senate Republicans on Wednesday blocked a measure that would have provided $1 billion over five years to help veterans find work in their communities.

The measure, which would have potentially created jobs for up to 20,000 veterans, was blocked on a procedural point by Republicans, who argued that the bill was unpaid for. Senator Patty Murray, a Washington Democrat and the bill’s main sponsor, said the bill would have covered the costs in part with fees on Medicare providers and suppliers who are delinquent on their tax bills.

The procedural vote was 58 to 40; 60 votes would have been required to waive Republican objections.

The bill was opposed, by, among others, Senator Tom Coburn, Republican of Oklahoma, who said he believed the bill duplicated existing job programs for veterans that are not well run, and Senator Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky, who has been seeking amendments on bills that would cut off funding to Egypt and to Pakistan until Pakistan freed Shakil Afridi, the doctor who helped the United States find Osama bin Laden.

“It’s both shocking and shameful that Republicans today chose to kill a bill to put America’s veterans back to work,” Ms. Murray said in a statement.

“At a time when one in four young veterans are unemployed,” she said, “Republicans should have been able, for just this once, to put aside the politics of obstruction and to help these men and women provide for their families.”

She added that the vote was “stark reminder” that Mitch McConnell, Senate minority leader from Kentucky, and Senate Republicans “are willing to do absolutely anything to fulfill the pledge he made nearly two years ago to defeat President Obama. It doesn’t matter who gets in their way or which Americans they have to sacrifice in that pursuit, even if it’s our nation’s veterans.”

Some Republicans, five of whom voted for the bill, also seemed disappointed about the failure of legislation that had the veneer of bipartisan support. “These men and women have worn our uniform, shouldered the burden and faced unthinkable dangers in forward areas during a very dangerous time,” Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska said.

The vote was met with a strong rebuke from the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. “Once again, this Congress let partisan bickering stand in the way of putting thousands of America’s heroes back to work,“ said Paul Rieckhoff, the organization’s founder. “Lowering veteran unemployment is something both parties should be able to agree on – even in an election year.”

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