The national guard requires less intense long term commitment and let's you pick your school. It may not cover everything(you still qualify for parts of the GI bill)[0] but a couple weekends a month is generally much easier for most to agree with.
The article somehow doesn't mention ROTC, which is a much bigger commitment but can pay for all 4 years of school. Feels like a missed opportunity at the very least.
My main gripe with student loan forgiveness is that it addresses the symptom rather than the issue itself of college being too damn expensive. National military service at least helps pay for college, though doesn't leave many options for those who are unable or unwilling to join the armed forces.
The article only briefly mentions it but I've always thought the idea of non-military national service was interesting. Not necessarily a good idea depending on implementation details, but an interesting one nonetheless.
So one of the things I like about Tiktok is you get exposed to something you normally wouldn't and it can be fascinating. One example of this I had an Air Force recruiter pop up on my fyp. This is obviously US-centric (as opposed to the article, which is the UK) but here are some things I've learned:
1. The difference between Reserve and Guard? Reserve is Federal, Guard is State (this was news to me);
2. Signing up for the Guard or Reserve is typically a 6 year commitment;
3. Your commitment begins when you sign up but you can defer your enlistment for up to a year;
4. You can sign up having completed your junior year in high school and defer training until after you graduate (which I think you have to anyway) but that's 1 of your 6 years down already;
5. Reservists get tuition assistance of up to $9,000/year;
6. Assuming a 4 year college degree and early enlistment, you can graudate with 5 years of your 6 year commitment done;
7. For one weekend a month and 2 weeks a year, you typically get $250-300/month (plus active duty pay where appropriate);
8. You also get medical and dental insurance.
As ridiculous as the US college system is in terms of cost, I'm happy things like this exist to at least give people more options. If you go to college, the above can amount to $50,000 plus benefits over a 6 year period.
Well even if you wanted to say that, part of the compensation package of joining the military is having school paid for afterward. So think of it as more of a contract, because it is.
Military used to be a plumb deal, growing up I knew families where mom and dad were both in the National Guard, they did their one weekend a month, and easily doubled their income. But then the first Iraq war happened, and they started deploying the National Guard, and suddenly kids were left alone with both parents in active war zones, and that killed the deal.
I'm in the national guard, and have numerous friends who joined the military right out of high school and been able to make a great living. Serve 20+ and get a pension, healthcare, and you're set--something few jobs in the private sector even offer. Sure you wont be making millions of bucks, but you have a nice steady income.
The details matter. A lot of people sign up for a two-year active duty contract (it's an eight-year contract in all though, you're in the reserves afterwards). That only gives 70-80% of the benefit (which only runs for a max of 36 months, not a full four years). You're also restricted to in-state public schools, no private (Ivy League etc.) or out-of-home-state schools. Most of the military people I talked to at my local community college barely got two years of schooling out of it.
I was active duty military for over 10 years. I went to bootcamp shortly after my 18th birthday. My job required 6 years service obligation; air traffic control. Before I separated I had my bachelors and two masters degrees paid for.
Most of your tuition is covered while you are active duty, $750 per credit hour. If not you can tap into your GI Bill to pay the rest; I did this as I didn't want to fund any of it. Though I could have paid the difference, saving my GI Bill, which would have netted more money for school.
Overall, you analogy is correct. But the military is an easy route when you are 18 - 22 (easier than most people think), as most jobs are not combat related. My job provided services to the general public as well.
The National Guard is effectively the militia of each state. They report to each governor first, and if activated, report to the US military. A traditional guardsman has a civilian job, 9-5 M-F, then one weekend a month 'drills' as a part of the unit. You can get activated, at which point your civilian job has to let you go serve. Most common activations are for statewide disasters--tornados, floods, hurricanes--but most recently medical units were deployed for covid relief. National callups would be to help the us military in Iraq etc., but at all times the guard serves the state first.
The US military has been offering ROTC scholarships that completely cover all college costs (at least at cheaper schools) for a long time. Of course they also include a multi-year commitment to a job that could include being shot at.
One could essentially sign up to be a librarian (bit of an exaggeration but there are active duty members who work at libraries). Same goes for Coast Guard which doesn’t get deployed in the traditional sense and are more like water police.
Ceteribus paribus, the military provides stable job, income, and a generous scholarship.
The scholarship is roughly $70-$100k depending on school and a monthly housing stipend. For SF area, that stipend is $4.2k/month
When I say catering to, I mean they college advertises heavily to the active duty armed forces and works with a deployment schedule a lot better than some other traditional colleges. There are certain use cases where using GI Bill or Post 9/11 bill makes since WHILE on active duty, but generally you would use those after discharge. I did not use either.
And, again, personal expenses go down to almost zilch while living on-base.
My mom's boyfriend is in the National Guard. Every few years, he gets activated and deployed somewhere for a year or two. Every time he comes back, he takes the money he saved by not having to pay for anything for a year and buys himself an expensive new car. Last time, he bought a Dodge Challenger SRT8.
For the same reason people do research, that also "pays" a pittance compared to what those people could make in the market.
And actually, it at least pays better than the academy. Most of the time you will move to some smaller, cheaper town. Sometimes even living inside a base.
You can actually buy a house and have a family with defense wages. Try doing the same doing research on the academy.
[0]: http://www.militaryspot.com/national-guard/pay-for-school
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