When does Federal Policy and Higher Education clash?

The Veterans Administration normally releases a guide on administering veteran’s educational benefits every July and then in October of each year clarification and interpretation of those policies occurs. Any erroneous interpretation or application of benefits creates a financial liability for students. Where does the disconnect occur? It derives from the fact that the Veteran’s Administration operates in isolation from the colleges and vice versa . Something as simple as reporting withdraws ultimately meant two different dates to the college and VA. Who does the difference in interpretation affect? Veteran Students. To the Veteran’s Administration the definition meant the day the student dropped courses after the first day of the class and to colleges withdraws is defined as the time that one receives a "W" grade at or near 75% or 80% of the term.

According to the Government Accountability Office, the problem in administering veteran educational benefits the problem is extensive and more governance and oversight must occur.

Government Accountability Office Recommends Greater Oversight of VA Education Benefits
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) should improve oversight, outreach and support for its VA education benefits information campaign and establish performance measures to evaluate and enhance the effectiveness of such activities, according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO).

After reports of for-profit educational institutions taking advantage of service members and the VA educational benefits they receive, the GAO was asked to review the effectiveness of the VA's oversight and support for these programs. About $9 billion in education benefits went to service members and veterans in fiscal year 2010, mostly through the new Post-9/11 GI Bill, according to the report.
The VA relies on State Approving Agencies (SAA) to approve schools, and on schools to report students' enrollment status, but the report found the VA lacks comprehensive information on the oversight of this process. The report also found that school officials were often burdened with performing roles beyond those specifically required by the VA, such as helping students apply for benefits.
"Although the majority of school officials were generally satisfied with VA's implementation of the Post-9/11 GI Bill, they cited a range of challenges, such as the lack of a Post-9/11 GI Bill policy manual," the report states. "In addition, although VA provides training through conferences and its website, many officials did not participate due to other job responsibilities, travel costs, and lack of awareness about training opportunities."

The report also found that the VA has not completed its own required school audits in recent years.

"Most recently, VA suspended its audits during fiscal year 2010 in order to reassign compliance staff to help process a backlog of Post-9/11 GI Bill claims," the GAO report states. "Although VA has resumed its audits, there are indications that it may not be able to complete all required audits in fiscal year 2011. Moreover, VA does not compile and review findings from its own or other entities' audits of schools that would, going forward, allow it to identify trends and better target its oversight of schools."

The GAO recommends the VA establish outcome-oriented performance measures for outreach and support activities improve communication with school officials and undertake a systematic review of its oversight of SAAs and schools. The VA has said that it is already taking actions to improve how it oversees its education benefits programs.

http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-11-256

A confidential account from a Colorado Community College:

During the 2011 calendar year many Colorado colleges received the results a Veteran’s Compliance Survey including the University of Northern Colorado. One community college survey in particular indicated that the campuses far exceeded thirty percent error indicator established by the VA in the 50 files randomly selected from 2009-10 Chapter 33, Post 9-11 GI Bill Veteran Education survey. Factors contributing to the lack of accuracy in certification included the need to manually track hundreds of student’s daily transactions through the semester, lack of reports, population increase, new regulations and subsequent interpretations of said regulations. As a result, the college was directed to conduct an internal audit of all Chapter 9-11 students, near 500, for academic year 2009-10 and make necessary adjustments before the VA Education Liaison Representative’s (ELR) return to audit 50 additional files. The ELRs will return to FRCC in 2012 and randomly selected an additional 50 files for accuracy of the internal file review and the subsequent adjustments are made to benefits in VA Once, a VA administration database. The internal audit was completed under the direction of the Registrar and Controller and the findings indicate that the college has a substantial number of errors and they include, but are not limited to COF reporting errors, non-resident to resident tuition changes, unauthorized veteran schedule changes, online remedial course certification, etc. The Registrar and staff persons worked 80 hours on Saturday and Sunday along with two external community college employees in addition to regular hours in order to complete the internal audit.

In June 2011, reorganization occurred and the administration of Veteran’s Administration benefits and one college-wide Certifying Official and support staff person were centralized and now report to the Office of the Registrar. As a result of the reorganization and conducting the internal audit the Office of the Registrar was asked to recommend when a debt should be a student debt and when the debt should be a college debt. The Department of Veterans Affairs has provided guidance on debt and indicated that with the exception of erroneous COF application, all debt is the student debt. How much debt was created erroneously at this one community college? $576,000. Who will repay the majority of the money? The Veteran Student.

Collaboration between the Veteran's Administration and Educational Institutions must occur in order to create rules, regulations, and intepretations for veteran students who have earned their educational benefits or the repercussion of miscommunication will remain for the student. A cross functional team should be appointed and intstitutionalized at the federal level sooner than later to address policy issues rather than relying on an Educational Liason employed by the VA who simply cannot audit every college in their area, serve as policy gurus, and be accountable to the federal government.