Veterans Education Legislation Approved

Just prior to the Memorial Day weekend, Congress approved the Training in High-demand Roles to Improve Veteran Employment (THRIVE) Act, which revises several provisions of the Johnny Isakson and David P. Roe, M.D. Veterans Health Care and Benefits Improvement Act of 2020 signed into law in January.  

These revisions include:

• Adding applicable religious, minority-serving, and gender-specific missions to the information about institutions the Secretary of Veterans Affairs (VA) is to make available to veterans.
• Clarifying that information regarding the availability of required classes and graduation timelines be provided to veteran students “to the extent practicable.”
• Penalizing institutions that provide incentive compensation for student recruitment or securing financial aid.  Penalties may include a warning on the VA website, disapproval of new veteran enrollments in courses or programs, or revocation of prior course and program approvals.  (This expanded range of penalties would also apply in situations where an institution is subject to accreditation sanctions or probation, or loss of accreditation.)
• Delaying for one year a prohibition against the co-location of a State approving agency with a university or university system that offers courses or programs subject to approval by the agency.
• Expanding provisions that require the VA to conduct annual risk-based surveys for three years following the conversion of a for-profit institution to nonprofit status to include conversions from for-profit to public status.

The higher education community has identified a number of other areas where provisions, such as overpayments, should be revised or clarified.  These concerns were raised during consideration of the THRIVE Act but were not included.  Efforts to address these issues will continue as Congress considers future veterans legislation.