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 “We are grateful to Sen. Durbin for his leadership and advocacy
on this important issue for our Illinois student-veterans,” said
Illinois Governor Pat Quinn. “This effort has brought the voices of
others to the conversation, and we are grateful that we have a
positive outcome and way ahead for our veterans using state and
federal education benefits they earned through service.”
“Veteran students shouldn’t be forced to choose between the benefits
offered by the State of Illinois and those offered by the federal
government, yet that’s exactly what many Illinois veterans have been
forced to do in recent years,” Durbin said. “These veterans risked
their lives to serve our country. Now it’s our turn to deliver on
the promises we made to them. Unfortunately, Illinois veterans have
been faced with a unfair choice – forgoing the state education
benefits to which they are entitled so they could claim the federal
benefits that help pay for books and housing. In August, I reached
out to the VA to get the federal support needed for this common
sense rule change. I look forward to continuing to work with the
State of Illinois and the VA to assure that Illinois veterans are
getting the most out of their service-related education benefits,
and I thank Governor Quinn and the Illinois VA for their
perseverance on this issue.”
 The change involves a proposed waiver to Illinois administrative
rules regarding the simultaneous use of federal Post 9/11 GI Bill
benefits and state student veteran benefits. Currently, when
veterans use both their federal and state benefits during the same
academic term, they often do not receive the full value of their
federal benefits. The proposed waiver will allow higher education
institutions to first apply Post 9/11 GI Bill benefits to a
student’s tuition and fees, and then make up the difference using
applicable Illinois Veteran Grant or Illinois National Guard Grant
funds administered by the state. The proposed rule change will
help veterans maximize their benefits by allowing them to first
access their federal benefits before they expire. These benefits
cover tuition, fees, housing and books. It will also allow veterans
to retain more of their state benefits for future use, and will
reduce the cost to each school of providing educational services to
veterans.
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“This is a great development for our student-veterans who are
using both state and federal education benefits,’ said Rodrigo
Garcia, Acting Director, IDVA. “We are grateful to Senator
Durbin and Governor Quinn for their leadership, and for all who
contributed to this effort.”
The proposed change must first be acted upon by the state’s
Joint Committee on Administrative Rules, but the U.S. Department
of Veterans Affairs support was seen as key to getting the rules
changed. U.S. Senator Richard Durbin and Congressional
representatives actively sought this federal support, and as a
result Senator Durbin received a letter recently stating the
department’s support for the proposed rules change. The new
rules could be in place by the summer of 2015, in time for
veterans to take advantage of this new flexibility in the
2015-16 school year.
Others active in supporting the outreach to the U.S. Department
of Veterans Affairs included Representative Bill Foster,
(IL-11th) Representative William Enyart (IL-12th), the Illinois
Department of Veterans’ Affairs, Illinois Community College
Board, Illinois Department of Military Affairs, the Illinois
Student Assistance Commission, Illinois Joining Forces, Illinois
Board of Higher Education, the Council for Adult & Experiential
Learning, Student Veterans of America, Western Illinois
University, and Lincoln Land Community College.
[Illinois Department of Veteran
Affairs]
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