To the editor:

The GI Bill was enacted after World War II to help veterans to attend college. It paid for veterans’ direct costs, such as tuition, and even paid for living expenses.

If you want to know about a social program that makes sense and succeeds, you can read a lot more about it at www.gibill2008.org. The Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America host the site and point out that the original GI Bill returned $7 of economic benefit for $1 paid out for veterans’ education expenses. But the current levels of how much each veteran can get don’t match what they have to pay for education.

The GI Bill’s record is a concrete realization of the potential to show a positive return on our tax dollars by investing in social programs that directly benefit individuals. Consider the success of that program and imagine how much we could get back if we paid to send all of ourselves to college.

A new GI Bill is moving through Congress. As I write this, none of the Kansas U.S. representatives or senators has signed on as sponsors. You can send them a message about it from the site.

Mike Cuenca,

Lawrence