As a child of a veteran of the first Iraq war and a proud recipient of the Children of Veteran’s Scholarship, I have a great deal of respect for the men and women who serve in the armed forces, as well as their families, because I know of the hardships they face while their loved ones are away fighting for their country.

Something I think all Illinois students should know is that public universities and community colleges also have a deep respect for people of service. However, their governor and the Illinois General Assembly do not. Sure, local legislators may take the time to do photo opportunities with constituents and units that return from oversees, but they decidedly fall short when it comes to paying the brave people their due. As you may or may not know, Illinois military and national guard veterans receive their education for free, and deservedly so. This is supposed to be paid for by the Illinois Veterans Grant, which is funded through the Illinois Student Assistance Commission. However, the governor’s proposed budget gives ISAC a rather meager allocation for funding this program. Thus the organization is only funding the grant at 5 percent of what it needs to help schools with their financial burdens.

However, the schools are not completely out that money, and that’s where you come in. Each school is still able to raise its tuition rates for other students who are paying out of pocket, or with loans, or receiving other means of financial aid. They are able to alleviate some of those costs of the veteran waivers by having others – that means you – help settle the bill.

Don’t be mad at the schools for doing this though, they have no other choice. With the Veteran’s Grant only receiving 5 percent of its needed funding, what else can they do? Turn veterans away? Make them pay for their tuition when so many of them were promised this as a perk for their service? Of course not. Even if they tried any of these options, they know the vets would see the school as the bad guy, not the General Assembly which is failing to show their support.

You may be thinking to yourself, “Wow this is a bad situation, but why tell us?” The reason is because things are only going to get worse, much worse. Let me know share with you this interesting factoid I learned:

I spoke to Jason Wallace, a students’ rights advocate and former student trustee of Heartland Community College. Jason was sworn into his trustee position over the phone because he was oversees in Kuwait at the time his term began. He informed me that the term for people who join the National Guard and Reserves is six years. Why is this important? Simple, next September marks the six year anniversary of a day in which America was attacked and many people then joined the service to help protect their country.

Before things got so complicated with Iraq, people were out in droves to defend the nation from the terrorist attacks. “Lots of people like me joined after 9/11, there’s no denying that,” Wallace said. “When those terms end, even more people will be ready to go to school.” He said quite a few people chose to wait for their education because it can be difficult to attend school while in the service. “You have to understand, if you get called, your semester or maybe even whole year is over for the time being.”

Once more people start receiving these waivers, the schools will have a more difficult time taking the financial burden. Unless the General Assembly starts adequately funding this grant, colleges will be forced into taking more drastic measures. They’ll be making more dramatic tuition increases, or veterans will be forced to pay in for their schooling.

In short, legislators may claim to be supporting our troops, but until they start ponying up the dough, call them on their lack of respect for the men and women who lay their lives on the line.