Harmful Education Regulations Don’t Help Address the Military Recruiting Crisis

On Veterans Day, we honor the brave Americans who answered the call of duty and served in uniform. But it’s also a reminder of a difficult reality: Our military is experiencing a recruiting crisis. And our educational benefits policies are likely to make it worse.

The Department of Defense (DOD) reported at the end of last year that the military services collectively missed their recruiting goals by 41,000. Only the Marine Corps and Space Force met their targets. The Army has lost nearly a quarter of its personnel since 2011, and it is projected to lose another 7,000 service members to attrition this year.

While there’s been improvement in this year,  there’s still the reality of the increased competition for our country’s best and brightest. The Department of Defense’s (DoD) most recent Joint Advertising and Market Research Service (JAMRS)  survey found only 11 percent of young people are considering military service. The same poll found the second leading reason forthose that do join is to “pay for future education” (behind only pay).

Education benefits are one of the strongest tools our military has available to it to attract and retain qualified leaders. A 2021 study found over half (53%) of veterans, activity duty personnel, reservists, and National Guard members said they enlisted because of education benefits. Those rates were even higher among women (62%) and minorities (61 to 71%, depending on segment).

But the Departments of Education and Veterans’ Affairs (VA) undercut that recruiting advantage by selectively regulating how and where military members and veterans can use their earned education benefits. These cherry-picked rules create barriers to a post-secondary degree and discourage potential military recruits from committing to military service in the first place. After all, what good is the promise of education benefits if a service member cannot freely decide how to use them?

The Departments of Education and VA have adopted a mentality of “condescending paternalism” towards those who serve. These agencies impose arbitrary and biased regulations against non-traditional higher education options—namely, career colleges and distance learning programs—even though these options are growing in popularity with military and veteran students.

Career colleges and online programs offer non-traditional students flexible schedules, career-applicable instruction, and even financial counseling to help them maximize their benefits—all without the social and political distractions present on most campuses. That’s important considering military members and veterans are more likely to be older, have a family, and are navigating the transition from military to civilian life. And, not to mention, many veterans cannot get into, or are not welcome, at “elite” colleges and universities.

Biased rules that apply exclusively to proprietary schools and programs can prevent military and veteran students from choosing higher education options that are right for them. The Gainful Employment Rule and 90/10 Rule are two glaring examples.

The first, Gainful Employment, requires only career colleges and online programs to prove their graduates earn more than counterparts with only a high school degree, excusing traditional public and private nonprofit schools from those requirements. Similarly, the 90/10 Rule demands career colleges show that at least 10 percent of their revenue come from non-federal aid, even though many of them were founded and designed to cater to the unique needs of nontraditional students, like veterans, who overwhelmingly use federal aid programs like the GI Bill.

It’s hard to see why only non-traditional schools and programs should have to meet those benchmarks. There are plenty of graduates from public, private, and state-run schools with degrees that probably aren’t worth the sheepskin on which they are printed.

This pick-and-choose regulatory framework isn’t about protecting students. It’s about protecting the status quo—name-brand colleges and universities that fervently lobby Congress and the Executive Branch to keep their sweetheart status among  federal regulators. It’s an effort to fence in the “Toolbelt Generation,” which is picking vocational and trade schools over conventional four-year universities. The Department of Education’s and VA’s dogmatic aversion to innovation in the higher education space is bad for students, and it’s bad for our military. Amid a historic recruiting crisis, micromanaging how and where young Americans can use their earned education benefits only exacerbates the problem. It’s time the Executive Branch quit patronizing veterans, service members, and potential recruits, and focus on expanding educational choice—not limiting it.