ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Logan Cappelli is a Coast Guard veteran and also a student at St. Pete College in Pinellas County and thanks to the Post-9/11 GI Bill, or Chapter 33, Cappelli has had the financial support he needed to attend SPC since 2024.
What You Need To Know
- HR 1965, better known as, The Veteran Education Assistance Adjustment Act, was introduced to legislation in early March 2025
- The bill would raise stipend amounts to $1,400 for books and supplies. The program is estimated to assist almost 1 million participants with $13.4 billion in benefits
- The amount of money provided through this stipend has not changed since 2009; the new stipend raise will respond to changing inflation and costs for tuition
- Current Post-9/11 GI Bill regulations require veterans to take at least one in-person class to receive full benefits, a rule veteran students like Logan Cappelli find outdated as programs shift online
Focused on providing needed benefits to eligible service members and veterans who served on or after the events of September 11, 2001, it supports veterans by paying tuition, offering a book stipend, and a living expense stipend.
“It definitely pays for a lot of things that I wouldn’t be able to pay for,” Cappelli said.
However, the GI Bill isn’t perfect, and Capelli said many parts feel outdated or tied to regulations that aren’t realistic anymore. That includes the requirement to take at least one in-person class to keep GI benefits.
Many of Cappelli’s classes for his major are offered virtually online.
“I ran into a problem in the summer where I couldn’t take any classes because none of them were going to be in person,” said Cappelli.
Additionally, Cappelli thinks stipends for education support need to provide more money to keep up with rising costs.
The Post-9/11 GI Bill book stipend has stayed at $1,000 since 2009. But with an inflation increase of over 50 percent the last 17 years, that money is now worth a total of $1,500.
“One textbook could be $300 or more just for one textbook,” Cappelli said. “So, I definitely don’t think that it’s kept up with modern times. Nor do I think I’d be able to afford my Wacom tablet with it.”
That’s what New Mexico Rep. Gabe Vasquez wanted to target when he introduced the Veteran Education Assistance Adjustment Act in 2025. The new legislation would raise the book and supplies stipend to $1,400 and tie future adjustments to inflation.
He sent Spectrum News the following statement:
“Currently, the GI Bill’s annual book stipend no longer reflects today’s costs and falls woefully short of meeting the financial needs of our veterans today. At a time when millions of veterans are already working to make ends meet, Congress should not allow outdated policy to become yet another barrier to their success.”
SPC Veteran Student Advisor, Trevor McGilvery, said a vast majority of veterans at the college in Pinellas County use the GI Bill for education assistance.
He said this potential increase could make a big difference for many veterans or service members looking to go back to school.
“The last thing I want any of my students to have to do is take out a loan to pay for books or a computer or any of their mandatory educational supplies when the GI Bill, its original purpose was to ensure that they didn’t have to do that,” McGilvery said.
Spectrum News reached out to the Department of Veterans Affairs as well. They directed us to their testimony to the House committee last summer, which stated:
“While this stipend has remained constant since the Post-9/11 GI Bill was initially enacted in 2009, the cost of books has increased every year. Thus, VA fully supports an annual adjustment to the stipend, similar to the adjustments that are made for tuition and fees payments.”
