Effective August 1, 2009, the Post-9/11 GI Bill brings new benefits and improves upon some of the outdated features of the Montgomery GI Bill. The GI Bill, often called the best piece of legislation passed by the U.S. government, has been revamped a few times since it was first passed in 1944. President Franklin D. Roosevelt first signed the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act, or the GI Bill of Rights, into law. Only three years later in 1947, veterans accounted for a full 49 percent of college admissions. The original GI Bill was such a success that by the time it ended in 1956, 7.8 million of the 16 million World War II veterans had taken advantage of it.

Since then, each new GI Bill is better and proves Roosevelt’s assertion that the GI Bill “gives emphatic notice to the men and women in our armed forces that the American people do not intend to let them down.”