Joseph Galloway of Knight Ridder Newspapers has made one of the best suggestions to come along in a while: “A new generation of American war veterans is being born of the combat in Afghanistan and Iraq, and it is high time Congress crafted a new GI Bill with the same enhanced benefits that were provided for their grandfathers in World War II and Korea, and for their fathers and uncles who fought in Vietnam.”

Adding to the importance of such a move is that armed forces now are all-voluntary operations where people put their lives on the line by choice rather than by draft as was often the case in the past. Considering how the GI Bill of Rights has benefited the country and its military people so richly in the past, Congress must cast politics aside, engage in real statesmanship and get on this matter.

The original GI Bill, authored by Kansas Legionnaire Harry Colmery, was signed by President Franklin Roosevelt in June of 1944. It ultimately provided education benefits to eight million veterans. It also provided low-cost guaranteed loans for veterans to buy homes or farms as well as medical assistance after the people were discharged. There were vocational training programs, assistance for those looking for jobs and a number of other aids. The cost of the original GI Bill was $14 billion, a pittance in comparison to the billions of dollars the GI Bill helped produce for the national welfare.

Similar benefits were provided to veterans of the Korean War. In 1966, a new GI Bill was passed providing benefits akin to those from the Korean War.

As Galloway points out, in the peacetime year of 1984 with an all-volunteer military coming out of the reactions to Vietnam, Congress passed a stripped-down version of veterans’ benefits, the Montgomery GI Bill Program. It was a temporary program made permanent in June of 1987.

Now. Only if a new enlistee signs up for the college benefit at the time of enlistment, or during boot camp, and agrees to have his pay reduced by $100 a month for his first 12 months of service, is he eligible for the education benefits — 36 months of assistance at the rate of approximately $1,000 a month.

Asks Galloway, what is missing from this picture? He answers:

“The dependents of service members killed or disabled on active duty receive 45 months of education benefits, little enough considering the sacrifices of the families. But the 36 months of benefits for a newly returned veteran is simply not enough. Most of them have been in the military for four years or more. They are a long way from their last high school classroom and most require remedial classes, especially in math and writing skills needed to perform up to college standards.

“There is no room in the 36 months of benefits for that, which means these new veterans come up on their fourth and final year in college and see their monthly checks dry up and disappear.”

Evidence is that more than half the veterans entering college may need remedial classes.

This is a matter Congress and the White House need to address quickly and directly. The beneficial “investment” in America by the previous GI Bills is incalculable, just as will be the case this time around.