The higher education offered free of charge to returning GIs wasn’t just a gift to the veterans; it was an investment in the nation’s future.

The people who forged the GI Bill of Rights following World War II understood something that current lawmakers sometimes seem to forget.

Looking for a way to repay soldiers who had served in the U.S. military and sustain the economic prosperity that had been fueled by efforts to mobilize for the war, a national commander for the American Legion from Topeka urged lawmakers to put the nation’s money where it would help the most into education.

The bill offered other benefits, including favorable mortgage loan programs, but the most dramatic aspect of the legislation was the provision to allow military veterans to seek higher education free of charge. Between 1944 and 1956, 2.23 million veterans attended college and 3.4 million more attended other schools thanks to the GI Bill. During ceremonies Thursday to commemorate the legislation, the current chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee said the program contributed 450,000 engineers, 238,000 teachers, 91,000 scientists, 67,000 doctors and 22,000 dentists to the U.S. work force.

The higher education that was offered to returning GIs was an investment in America’s future. Unfortunately the nation no longer seems to make that connection between higher education and economic prosperity. The education that was available to every returning soldier after World War II too often is priced today beyond the reach of low-income students who aren’t among the academic elite. And too many Kansas lawmakers don’t seem to understand that adequate funding for higher education is the key to the state’s economic future.

Post-war America got that message and used education to extend the wartime boom and make this nation the most powerful and prosperous in the world.

It’s something to think about as we consider exactly what went into making those who lived through World War II worthy of the title “The Greatest Generation.”