Letters: The cost of educating vets

Re “Anger grows over GI Bill profiteers,” July 16

A friend of mine — a poorly educated, divorced father with no money and trying hard to make ends meet as a delivery person — once told me he had enrolled at a school to be retrained as a computer programmer.

An aptitude test would have made clear he was an inappropriate candidate. Instead, the school waived his enrollment fee and arranged a bank loan for full tuition backed by the federal government. He lasted four weeks.

Corporate America’s aversion to government spending is for money not available to itself. When public money is available to corporate America, it loses all scruples.

Duane Dell’Amico

Los Angeles

Your article compares the $4,642 paid by taxpayers to educate a typical veteran at a public college and the $10,441 spent for a for-profit school. So why are public colleges such a bargain? Taxpayer support.

As a yardstick, for the 2012-13 school year, tuition and fees for in-state students at Cal State Channel Islands is $6,814, while typical out-of-state fees top $16,000. California taxpayer support accounts for much of the difference.

A more reasonable apples-to-apples comparison of taxpayer spending on veterans at public and private colleges would include all forms of support.

Rick Bowers

Camarillo

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