Changes to the Post-9/11 GI Bill coming into effect on Aug. 1 could have a significant effect on the amount of housing money students receive.
Currently, rates take into account the cost of housing where the main campus of the school is located. Beginning in August, housing payments will be calculated using the zip code of where the student is physically taking most classes.
Robert Haley, director of the Maine State Approving Agency for Veterans Education Programs, says the change is an effort to right-size housing payments.
"I know that's difficult to necessarily grasp if you're the person that all of a sudden is going to get a decrease in your housing rate, but it really is what the student should have been getting all along had it not been for some inadequacies in the current legislation," he says.
Haley says he thinks the number of beneficiaries who see their housing payments go up will be about equal to the number seeing a decrease.
