Back-to-school veterans fight new battle

http://triblive.com/news/allegheny/2950049-74/veterans-mcgarry-debt-university-student-benefits-online-profit-education-private


Back-to-school veterans fight new battle
By Debra Erdley
Published: Saturday, November 24, 2012, 8:57 p.m.

Mae McGarry thought she had the perfect match when she found Southern Columbia University’s online degree program in criminal justice after she returned from serving in Iraq in 2005.

The Erie mother of three attended Mercyhurst College for a year after high school before she joined the Army, where she earned 12 more college credits. Finally, home from Iraq and with a discharge on the horizon, McGarry decided to tap her GI benefits to finish her education.

But after three years of online courses, she said, she found herself $50,000 in debt, with no degree and credits that wouldn’t transfer anywhere else. Officials at Southern Columbia did not respond to a request for comment.

Many Iraq and Afghanistan veterans are shouldering heavy debt from for-profit schools, said Patrick Uetz, a retired Marine Corps colonel and director of the University of San Diego Law School’s Initiative to Protect Student Veterans. The exact number isn’t known because Congress neglected to include tracking requirements in the post-9/11 GI Bill to monitor the progress and graduation rates of about 2 million veterans who qualify for benefits.