Does the GI Bill cover flight school?

Does the GI Bill cover flight school? That depends.

The older Montgomery GI Bill did cover flight school. Since you are not in the service yet, you may not get the opportunity to sign up for the old GI Bill, and will be using the new Post 9/11 GI Bill instead. The new GI Bill has a lot of benefits over the old GI Bill, but there are some significant differences. One of those differences involves educational programs like flight schools.

Basically, the new GI Bill doesn’t cover the tuition of flight school, if it is provided by an institution that only does flight school. However, if you take flight school through an “Institute of Higher Learning” (ILH), then it can be used to pay for it. What defines an IHL? In order to be an institute of higher learning, a school must grant traditional college degrees (associates, bachelors, masters, etc.) through programs that are properly accredited. Even if you are not in a program that grants a degree, if your school grants any degree, you may be able to use the GI Bill to pay for your program.

I can’t make a very useful recommendation for you as to which school would be best; that is all up to your needs, including where you will be living. But there are a lot of flight school programs out there, and some are held by accredited institutions, such as Cochise College in Arizona (just as an example). Personally, I took my ground school training at a community college in California, so I kn0w the programs are available. Do a search online, and you’ll find helpful lists, like the one at JustFlightSchools.com.