The Army and Air Force have reopened their Tuition Assistance pipelines to service members — following a Congressional mandate — yet similar funding remains stalled within the Marine Corps, a leading veterans’ advocate complained Wednesday.

The federal sequestration had previously blockaded all money that’s normally funneled to troops to help them pay for college classes in order to further their educations and their military careers. In most branches, that tab reaches $4,500 per year for each service member who takes the classes.

On March 21, Congress voted to order the Defense Department to locate the necessary funding to relaunch Tuition Assistance across the branches. That directive has now become law. Navy leaders had already opted to keep that program alive for sailors despite sequestration, “and we’re quite proud of that, too,” said Lt. Shawn Eklund, a Navy spokesman.

At midnight Tuesday, the Army turned on the web portal used by soldiers to formally ask for Tuition Assistance money.

“This will allow soldiers to request Tuition Assistance for the remainder of fiscal year 2013. For the balance of (this year), the eligibility rules for use of TA, the $250 semester-hour cap, and the annual ceiling of $4,500 remain unchanged,” said Lt. Col. S. Justin Platt, an Army spokesman.

On Wednesday, the Air Force also reinstated Tuition Assistance for its members, said Air Force spokesman Lt. Col. Laurel Tingley.

"The program is going to remain exactly the same as it was before the suspension," Tingley said. 

Marine Corps public affairs officers didn’t immediately respond to emailed questions on when that branch will again offer Tuition Assistance.

“Here’s the issue: It’s been passed by Congress and signed by the president. There’s no reason this shouldn’t (already) be reinstated at the branch level,” said Michael Dakduk, executive director of Student Veterans of America, a support network with more than 500 campus chapters.

At some military posts, including North Carolina’s Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, the attendance of Marines who once used on-base college classes has been cut by more than half since DOD halted all tuition help amid the sequestration, Dakduk said.

“It’s absolutely extreme,” he added. “And that’s exactly kind of thing we don’t want to see as far as supporting service members. Especially as our military force in total begins to draw down and we have folks exit the military.”

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Courtesy Hayleigh Perez

Hayleigh Perez, a former Army sergeant who served in Iraq, is pictured with her daughter, Caleigh.

Two student veterans who claim U.S. colleges are profiting from artificially inflated tuition fees by misclassifying the residency status of veterans have filed a federal lawsuit against the University of North Carolina Board of Governors, in part for allegedly engaging in that same practice.

The suit, filed last Thursday in Raleigh, accuses the UNC Board of Governors of discriminating against Iraq War veterans and UNC branch students Hayleigh Perez, 26, and Jason Thigpen, 35, by allegedly failing to provide “adequate services, facilities, resources, and assistance” needed to help the two students transition from war to college.

Perez and Thigpen are seeking $10 million in compensatory and punitive damages from the UNC Board of Governors for allegedly inflicting “profound financial hardship and psychological injuries” to the two veterans within a school system that “advertises and purports itself to be one of the most ‘military friendly’ in the country,” according to the suit. Last month, Perez, who attends UNC Pembroke, became the face of a national, grassroots campaign to stop American universities from stamping student veterans as out-of-state residents — thus forcing them to pay the schools $10,000 more in tuition each academic year — after returning home from combat deployments or other military assignments. (Her Change.org petition asking the UNC System to "stop discriminating against student veterans" has garnered mroe than 147,000 signatures). 

“This is not about money. This is about colleges doing the right thing, doing the legal thing and taking care of these students the way they’re supposed to,” said Thigpen, who attends UNC Wilmington and who has been fighting residency claims for other UNC system student veterans through his organization, the Student Veterans Advocacy Group (SVAG).

UNC officials responded to the suit with an emailed statement: “We believe the University has complied fully with federal and state law and has not discriminated against Ms. Perez or other student veterans.

“To the contrary, UNC has demonstrated a strong commitment to North Carolina's military community,” added Joni Worthington, vice president of communications for the UNC system. “The 2012 UNC Serves Resource Guide provides an extensive campus-by-campus inventory of resources, support staffing, services and initiatives specifically dedicated to support military-affiliated students and their families. We're committed to do even more and continue to make incremental progress as resources allow.”

On Oct. 22, NBC News reported SVAG’s assertion that some 250,000 student veterans — many of them lifelong residents of the states in which they're enrolled — were abruptly dubbed out of-state residents by their colleges and, thus, billed at higher tuition rates, after they were temporarily transferred to other military bases or deployed overseas. The practice has been seen at schools in 38 states, SVAG reported. 

The issue centers on a fundamental change to the GI Bill, enacted last year by Congress, which stripped tuition benefits for veterans who attend public schools and who are categorized as out-of-state students. In-state student veterans enrolled at public institutions remain eligible for full tuition coverage under federal law. 

The student-residency battle “makes up a portion” of the lawsuit, Thigpen said.

But allegations that the UNC system discriminated against Thigpen and Perez are the fundamental underpinnings of the suit, Thigpen added.

In short, the suit describes Thigpen, Perez and other student veterans in the UNC system as a “minority group.” And it alleges that when the plaintiffs each sought assistance from their individual UNC colleges — much like the services and resources provided “to other minority groups such as: African-Americans, LGBT, Hispanics, and women — they’re nearly none offered commensurate with having such high Veteran student populations,” the lawsuit said.

The UNC system included about 10,200 student veterans as of 2011, representing nearly 9 percent of the total undergraduates attending the 16 UNC system schools, according to the lawsuit.

“Had the federal (GI Bill) law not changed last year, would student veterans necessarily have issues with the lack of programs, facilities and resources available for them (in the UNC System)? Yes, they would,” Thigpen said in a phone interview. "But is residency classification one factor that led to this? Definitely.”

When Congress altered the GI Bill and removed tuition coverage for out-of-state residents, that placed a large financial burden on thousands of student veterans, Thigpen said.

Perez, for example, was classified as an out-of-state student by the UNC system after she temporarily accompanied her active-duty husband to Texas following his military transfer. While she was away, Perez said she continued making property tax payments on her North Carolina home. When she returned and enrolled at UNC Pembroke, the school billed her tuition fees at the out-of-state rate, costing her an extra $4,600 for one semester.

“When you have such a drastic change, obviously there’s going to be a much greater need for school services for the thousands of veterans who are attending the UNC system,” Thigpen said. “They are going to need more resources. But by not responding to our numerous requests for changes to the existing veterans’ services, that leads to (our claims of) discrimination and negligence.”

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courtesy of Hayleigh Perez

Hayleigh Perez, a former Army sergeant who served in Iraq, argues that the University of North Carolina system has over-billed by her $4,600 that should have been covered, she contends, by the GI Bill. She is holding her daughter Caleigh.

Some 250,000 student veterans are being forced to pay $10,000 for tuition each academic year because many colleges are misclassifying the residency status of those veterans — often for the schools’ own financial gain — according to a student veterans organization.

The issue centers on a fundamental change to the GI Bill, enacted last year by Congress, which stripped tuition benefits for veterans who attend public schools and who are categorized as out-of-state students. In-state student veterans enrolled at public institutions remain eligible for full tuition coverage under federal law. 

But the financial fallout of the residency crunch is impacting student veterans in about 38 states, including Florida, North Carolina and California, reports the Student Veterans Advocacy Group (SVAG). Many of those same student veterans are lifelong residents of the states in which they’re now enrolled — even owning homes in those states — but their schools stamped them as out-of-state residents after they were temporarily transferred to other military bases, or deployed overseas.

“Many veterans are having to quit school because they can’t afford that $5,000 per semester they have to now pay out of pocket,” said Jason Thigpen, founder and president of SVAG, which is based in North Carolina. Thigpen, a student at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, is not personally affected by the classification problems. As a U.S. Army sergeant, he earned a Purple Heart medal for combat wounds he sustained in Iraq in 2009.

“This is the first time in the history of the GI Bill that we can’t get the education that we were promised,” Thigpen said. “It’s a debt that’s owed to these services members. Our veterans are just asking what was promised to them — no more, no less.”

Dozens of student veterans, who recently used SVAG to successfully appeal and overturn their out-of-state residency classifications at their colleges, used utility bills and mortgage papers to prove that they are — and have been — living in their home states, Thigpen said.

Despite a similar pile of residency proof, however, student veteran Hayleigh Perez, 26, has failed during several hearings to convince the University of North Carolina that she was fully eligible for GI Bill tuition benefits when she attended UNC Pembroke last spring.

Perez, who was stationed at Fort Bragg, N.C., in 2006, legally maintained her residence in Fayetteville, N.C., during a subsequent 15-month deployment to Iraq, she said. When she returned to North Carolina, she got married in that state. In 2008, Perez and her husband bought a home in Hoke County, N.C. and she registered as a voter. In 2009, the U.S. military relocated Perez and her husband to Texas, but the couple continued to pay property taxes on their North Carolina home, she said.

Perez received an honorable discharge from the Army in 2009. Last spring, after her husband was transferred back to North Carolina, Perez enrolled at UNC Pembroke. She was stunned, however, when the school billed her $4,600 for a semester of tuition because she’d been deemed an out-of-state resident — and, thus, ineligible for the GI Bill.

“It is disgraceful,” Perez said. “I was forced to borrow the money for my tuition from family members.”

She filed a grievance with UNC Pembroke, offering as evidence of her residency the property records, her marriage license and her North Carolina voter ID. The school denied her appeal, she said. She ultimately took her case leaders of the UNC school system in Chapel Hill — and met with UNC officials yet again last Tuesday with Thigpen at her side. Once more, she said, her claim was denied. (While the UNC school system is headquartered Chapel Hill, Perez's claim does not involve the system's flagship college, UNC-Chapel Hill). 

NBC News asked UNC to address Perez’s assertion that she should be classified by the school system as an in-state resident. Laura B. Fjeld, a UNC vice president and general counsel, e-mailed a response: “We are not at liberty to offer any details in connection with the case of Ms. Perez because of the privacy protections afforded her under FERPA (the U.S. Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act).”

Meanwhile, in North Carolina, there are about 5,000 additional student veterans like Perez who are wrongly classified by their colleges as out-of-state residents — and many of those take classes within the UNC system, Thigpen contends. He has personally represented 32 of those students during their hearings to overturn their residency classifications, winning each case, he said. 

courtesy of Hayleigh Perez

Student veteran Hayleigh Perez now attends Methodist University in Fayetteville, N.C. Since spring, she's battled the University of North Carolina to reimburse her for $4,600 in tuition she argues she never should have paid under the GI Bill.

On that point, Fjeld responded: “We believe that the (North Carolina) State Residency Manual which governs classification of residency for tuition purposes, is consistent with state and federal law.”

“This isn’t just North Carolina, though,” Perez said. “This has become an issue nationally. People are serving multiple deployments, and to face these kinds of hardships when they get home is crazy.”

Perez knows well the scope of the issue. She posted an online petition at change.org, asking the “UNC Board of Governors” to “Stop Discriminating Against Student Veterans.” Within the petition, she also revealed her situation, point by point. As of Monday evening, more than 143,000 supporters had signed the petition — including people who said they are student veterans experiencing the same residency problems — and tuition bills — in Virginia, Florida and other states.

Why are some colleges such sticklers on the residency disputes filed by student veterans, forcing many to pay out-of-state tuition fees even though they reside in the same state?

If a public college agrees with a student’s assertion that he or she is an in-state resident and, consequently, allowed to attend school tuition-free on the GI bill, the federal government then directly sends the school that tuition payment — in North Carolina, that’s $5,000, on average, per academic year at public institutions, Thigpen said.

If the school holds fast to its ruling that a student veteran should be classified as an out-of-state enrollee, the student must pay the school out of pocket for tuition — in North Carolina, that’s $16,000, on average, per academic year at public colleges, Thigpen said.

“When you multiply that $11,000 difference over just say 5,000 to 10,000 student veterans who are affected by this,” Thigpen said, “you’re talking about over $100 million a year.”

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The insult expressed in the Rutgers University class was aimed at the nearly 1 million veterans enrolled at U.S. schools under the GI Bill. And Scott Hakim, barely a year removed from combat, took the slam personally.

“Why should we pay for these guys to go to college?” Hakim said he recalls a female student asking during a discussion on the nation’s responsibility to service members returning from war.  “Everybody who goes into the military is stupid – that’s why they joined the military instead of going to college.”

John Agnello Photography

Scott Hakim, a Marine infantryman in combat, now attends Rutgers University. The school has a military-friendly reputation. But even there, Hakim says he heard another student bash enrolled veterans. Hakim at a recent wedding with girlfriend Emma Valenti.

Hakim – a Marine infantryman in Iraq and Afghanistan – immediately vowed to out-study every classmate on the midterm exam and said he ultimately posted the highest mark: 98 out of 100. Later, he said, he overheard that same female student reveal her grade: F. 

“I guess I proved her wrong,” Hakim said. “It wasn't a me-versus-her thing, more like: Maybe now she realizes how idiotic her statement was.”

Anti-veteran sentiments – though sporadic and scattered – are nonetheless emerging at some American colleges just as thousands of veterans enroll with their tuition fees fully covered by the post-9/11 GI Bill. In student gatherings or via anonymous posts in online forums, some university students are expressing open disdain for former service members now massing in academia.

Student Veterans of America, a support network with more than 500 campus chapters, acknowledges the presence of some unwelcoming vibes. “It exists,” said Michael Dakduk, executive director of SVA. “But, by and large, college students respect the sacrifices made by those who have served in the military.”

At Columbia University in New York City, a wounded Iraq War veteran was heckled and booed in February by fellow students as he argued for the return to that school of the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps, or ROTC, during a campus meeting. That reaction angered the national commander of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, who openly questioned the school’s leadership.

At the University of North Carolina, Wilmington, student veteran Jason Thigpen said he has “personally experienced what seems to be ‘anti-veteran’ sentiment on more than a few occasions.”

Courtesy of Scott Hakim

Scott Hakim served with the U.S. Marines in Iraq and again in Afghanistan, where he was wounded by an IED in 2010.

“I had a History 101 professor in 2011 actually refer to how much better he was than military service members,” said Thigpen, an Army National Guard member who served in Iraq through January 2010. The UNC “system seems to disregard us in such a widespread manner, most student veterans no longer bother to even admit their time in-service, which is just sad.”

UNC, Wilmington spokeswoman Janine Iamunno responded: "UNC Wilmington proudly offers veterans, active-duty members of the military, and their families several programs and resources to support their unique educational needs. This is an extension of our commitment to  the journey of learning, and to the premium we place on an open dialogue between faculty and students about the opportunities and challenges we face individually and as a community."

At Rutgers, meanwhile, there is irony attached to the unfriendly dig uttered in one of Hakim’s classes. That sort of behavior is well out of the norm, he said: “Other than that one time, Rutgers has been absolutely amazing.” In Afghanistan, Hakim’s vehicles ran over and detonated five IEDs. On a sixth occasion, he stepped on an IED, sustaining a traumatic brain injury. “If I have to miss a class (due to the injury), my professors are accommodating. The whole school itself is great with veterans.”

"Rutgers, like the rest of the country, has successfully been able to separate the warrior from the war," said Steve Abel, a retired Army colonel and director of the office of veteran military programs and services at Rutgers.

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"I was on a college campus around the time of (the) Kent State (shootings). I'm a product of the Vietnam era. So when I was driving here (a couple of years ago to start the job), I wondered: What is Rutgers going to be like from a staff and student body perspective, being a big and liberal university?" Abel said. "Any apprehension I had about that relationship absolutely dissolved when I got here. They could not have been more welcoming to me, my team and to the student veterans here."

In fact, Rutgers was rated a “military friendly” school in the 2013 “G.I. Jobs” list of colleges where veterans feel appreciated and have an array of academic and social help available.

Last month, when NBC News reported on the latest list of “military friendly” schools, several readers offered comments via newsvine.com that derided the nation's newest veterans.

“This post-9/11 love affair with the military is disgusting. Paying people to illegally invade other countries and kill innocent men, women and children is immoral. Screw the military,” wrote a reader who calls herself OVUgirl.

“I have to agree with OVUgirl. Seeing the immoral military glorified on campus is disgusting,” wrote another reader who uses the newsvine handle Gandhi Fan.

Through newsvine, NBC News asked both of those readers to elaborate on their comments for this story. Neither responded.

“I don’t think you’ll see (those types of feelings expressed) as overtly on the ground at college campuses,” said SVA leader Dakduk. “But ... you can say things anonymously online – you can say pretty much everything – so that’s where you’ll see it most.”

Another leading veterans group suspects that some student veterans who blatantly grab GI Bill money with no plans to actually sit in a college classroom are further fueling that ill will.

Under the post-9/11 GI Bill, the federal government directly reimburses colleges for a veteran’s tuition fees. In addition, each student veteran receives a housing allowance that, depending on the university’s zip code, can run as high as $2,040 per month if the veteran has dependents. They also each get $1,000 annually for books and supplies.

“What happens is that too many of the people get the GI Bill and don’t go to class. They spend the money elsewhere and the college has to cut them loose,” said John E. Pickens III, executive director of VeteransPlus, a nonprofit that has offered financial counseling to more than 150,000 current and former service members. 

“That’s one of the issues that kind of took us by surprise,” he added. “When we go to these colleges and ask: How can we help? That’s one of the things we hear from the student advisers: ‘Look, I’ve got kids who come here and enroll to get their GI Bill and they end up not going to school.' 

“Unfortunately," Pickens said, "you have some folks who game the system." 

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Congressional members charged with overseeing the interests of former American service members have asked the Department of Veterans Affairs for a briefing to explain why its "work study" program is often months late paying many of its employees: college students who served in the military. 

Kami Fluetsch

Iraq and Afghanistan veteran Ashley Metcalf, now a student at the University of Colorado Denver, says he and other students employed by the VA to help fellow vets transition into college frequently wait months for VA wages to arrive.

The House Committee on Veterans Affairs issued that request of VA officials on Wednesday, one day after NBC News reported student veterans hired by the VA to help fellow ex-service members transition into college have routinely waited one to two months — and, in one case, four months — for unpaid wages. Delayed compensation from the VA has caused eviction worries and mounting debt among some of those student veterans. 

A call by NBC News to VA media relations officials Wednesday seeking comment on the Congressional briefing was not returned by Thursday morning. 

Rep. Jeff Miller, R. Fla., chairman of the committee on veterans affairs, said the VA's sluggish payment-pipeline seems to be "just another example" of a federal agency purposely sticking to outmoded practices versus modernizing its approach in order to help veterans. He also called for a wholesale streamlining in the way student veterans who work for the VA on campuses across the nation are reimbursed for their hours logged on the job.

"It is my understanding that VA's policy is to have student veterans accumulate 50 to 100 hours of work before submitting their claim for payment to VA. That payment schedule is counterintuitive to how people pay their living expenses," Miller said. 

"Therefore, GI Bill work study participants should be able to verify their working hours on a calendar basis, similar to the way Montgomery GI Bill students verify their enrollment on a monthly basis, as they have for decades," Miller added. "VA has the technology to set up the system in this way already. So, this problem appears to be just another example of government bureaucracy being satisfied with business as usual instead of evolving to serve veterans more efficiently."

Ashley Metcalf, a student veteran — and a "work study" employee who uncovered the scope of the payment snags via a survey of 18 colleges — said Miller's plan to fix the issue would solve the VA's payment snags. 

"He's absolutely correct," said Metcalf, an Air Force veteran who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. "I started school under the Montgomery GI bill in 2007 and used that online system to verify my school attendance. This option seems like a solution that simply requires reallocating resources and tweaking the system a bit to fit work study requirements."

Metcalf, a student at the University of Colorado Denver, told NBC News he's been living on credit cards since June and was forced to obtain an emergency loan because the VA has failed to compensate him for about 100 hours he's logged in the VA work study program. 

According to the VA website, the “work-study allowance” is available through the post-9/11 GI Bill. Student veterans employed by the program earn the minimum wage from the VA for devoting hours to specified, on-campus jobs such as “providing assistance to veteran students with general inquiries about veteran benefits,” the site says, adding: "VA will pay you each time you complete 50 hours of service."

But Metcalf's survey earlier this year found VA work-study employees at five campuses who reported waiting one month to two months for payments — and a student in North Dakota who was not compensated for four months. (Among the 18 schools represented in the survey were Texas A&M, Florida State and the University of Kentucky). Survey participants also revealed that a number of student veterans have quit their work-study jobs due to the chronic payment delays, hamstringing veteran-services departments at some campuses. 

On Wednesday, a VA spokesperson offered an e-mailed reaction to Metcalf's survey results, in part putting the onus back on colleges where work-study employees have been hired to help fellow vets: "VA will review any issues with the work-study to ensure payments are delivered in a timely manner. To allow more timely payments to work-study students, our regional processing offices recommend that employers submit time records to the work-study coordinator once 50 work hours have been accrued. In some cases, time records are submitted after a student has accrued 100 or more hours."

The same e-mail from VA added: "VA regional processing offices for work-study typically process time cards quickly, on average less than a week."

"The word 'typically' would suggest that we are an anomaly. And that’s not by any means the case," Metcalf responded. 

Beyond finding delayed VA payments to student veterans at more than a dozen campuses covered by his survey, Metcalf said student veterans in two additional states — Michigan and Washington — contacted him after NBC News reported the glitches and added  their late-payment complaints to the growing list. 

"If we were an anomaly, it would only be happening to us," Metcalf said. "Before we even sent out the survey, we called different schools and different organizations. We went online to find out if other schools are having the same issue. That’s the reason we started the survey — we were talking to student veterans who were all having the same problems in different states."

He also responded to the VA's claim of "typically" processing time cards in less than a week with one word: "preposterous."

According to Metcalf and many of the students he surveyed at the 18 other colleges, the VA has frequently failed to respond to calls and e-mails from student veterans seeking to learn when their owed wages would be arriving and asking for explanations for the compensation holdups. 

"We’ve been trying to tell them," Metcalf said, "and no one there is listening."

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Courtesy of Ashley Metcalf

Ashley Metcalf, who served in Iraq then enrolled in college, is leading a push to compel the VA to pay back wages owed to dozens of student veterans like himself.

Student veterans hired by the Department of Veterans Affairs to help fellow ex-service members transition into college have routinely waited four to six weeks — and, in one case, four months — for unpaid wages, prompting eviction worries and mounting debt, according to a survey of program members obtained by NBC News.

Ashley Metcalf, who served in Iraq and Afghanistan — and the student veteran who organized the survey of other VA "work-study" employees at 18 campuses — said he’s been living on credit cards since June and was forced to obtain an emergency loan because the VA has failed to compensate him for about 100 hours he's logged in the VA program. 

“How can this happen? If I was working for McDonald’s and they said they’re not going to pay me for 10 weeks, I’d have a lawsuit,” said Metcalf, an Air Force veteran now enrolled at the University of Colorado Denver.

“We’re not asking for a raise or for extra benefits. We’re just asking the VA to do what it said it would do: pay us on time,” Metcalf said. “Coming back home, trying to figure out mentally how to transition into college life and then not getting paid? It’s way too much of a stress for people who are possibly already on edge.”

According to the VA website, the “work-study allowance” is available through the post-9/11 GI Bill. Student veterans employed by the program earn the minimum wage from the VA for devoting hours to specified, on-campus jobs such as “providing assistance to veteran students with general inquiries about veteran benefits,” the site says, adding: "VA will pay you each time you complete 50 hours of service."

A voicemail left Monday by NBC News with the VA media relations office prompted an emailed response Wednesday from a VA spokesperson: "VA will review any issues with the work-study to ensure payments are delivered in a timely manner. To allow more timely payments to work-study students, our regional processing offices recommend that employers submit time records to the work-study coordinator once 50 work hours have been accrued. In some cases, time records are submitted after a student has accrued 100 or more hours."

But Metcalf’s survey found VA work-study employees at five campuses who reported waiting one month to two months for payments — and a student in North Dakota who was not compensated for four months. (Among the 18 schools represented in the survey were Texas A&M, Florida State and the University of Kentucky). Survey participants also revealed that a number of student veterans have quit their work-study jobs due to the chronic payment delays, hamstringing veteran-services departments at some campuses. 

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“I usually have 100 hours logged before I get paid for 50. For any other job I would find this to be a reason to quit,” one student veteran replied to the survey. “It is mind boggling to think that I work 50 hours, submit my form and have to wait almost a month to get paid for it. I'm married with a kid on the way. Please just pay me already!!!” wrote another.

A second dominant survey theme: rising anger over the VA's lack communications — and its failure to provide basic answers as to why faxed time sheets take weeks or months to process and pay. Many survey respondents described numerous unreturned voice mails and unanswered e-mails from VA officials.  "God answers my prayers faster than the VA answers my phone calls," complained one student veteran. 

Tomorrow, Neal Boyd would have marked his one-year anniversary with the VA work-study program. Instead, he resigned the post one month ago. An Iraq War veteran, Boyd was named to the Danville Area Community College Board of Trustees in April as the panel's student representative. (The school, in Danville, Ill, has about 120 students enrolled via military benefits). On Aug. 1, Boyd applied with the VA to renew his work-study contract for the fall semester. He then invested about 70 hours in his assigned job — helping veterans find employment. 

Two months later, Boyd has not received a reply from the VA about his contract renewal — or any money. In September, his college learned of the problem and hired Boyd, adding him to the school's payroll and allowing him to retain his job while letting him simultaneously step away from the VA's work-study program. 

"I’d be in the same boat (as the other unpaid student veterans) if I didn’t have such a great school," Boyd said. "When I would call the VA (for an answer), I wouldn’t get anybody, just a recording saying they were busy processing time sheets. At this point, I'm no longer interested in the VA work-study contract."

While the GI Bill covers veterans' tuition fees, many other living expenses remain. That's where the work-study money is supposed to help students like Ashley Metcalf stay financially safe while attending a full load of college classes and devoting 20 hours a week to guiding other enrolled veterans from the battlefield to the classroom. 

"People are relying on this money. This is ridiculous," Metcalf said of the results gathered by his survey. "I knew that somebody had to step up and do something."

For a personal view of the financial strain caused by the payment delays, Metcalf opened his personal books. In addition to his full tuition coverage, he receives $1,464 in monthly GI benefits. From that check, he pays $600 for rent. The remaining $864 must cover a month's worth of groceries, household items, clothing, school supplies, bills, gas for his car, and parking fees in downtown Denver where his college is located. While the GI Bill also allots $500 for college books, that doesn't cover the true cost each semester — just one of Metcalf's fall classes required $300 in book purchases. 

Courtesy of Ashley Metcalf

Ashley Metcalf served in the Air Force for 12 years, spending time in Iraq. He's being forced to return to service in January because the VA has been months late in compensating him for college work the agency hired Metcalf to perform.

"I’m running short every month (due to unpaid wages; he's supposed to receive $600 every 30 days). I know the VA has numerous veterans issues that are being handled now — mental health and people being homeless. But I have to pay rent. We had another guy (in the work-study program) who almost got evicted," Metcalf said. 

At the University of Colorado Denver, about 900 student veterans are enrolled — 13 of those are employed by VA's work-study program, aiding fellow veterans in tracking their GI benefits and merging into college life, Metcalf said. Amid the VA compensation snags, the bursar's office at UCD created emergency loans — $1,500 per semester — for student veterans, he added. 

"I had to take one of those loans because I don't know when I'm going to get paid," said Metcalf, who also serves as president of the UCD student veteran organization. "I just can't wait any longer for the money." 

And with the draw down in Afghanistan causing more service members to leave the military and enroll directly in college — in part due to the weak job market — Metcalf expects the work-study payment holdups to worsen. That means, he predicts, additional students will quit their work-study posts in college veteran-services departments, which will, in turn, reduce on-campus help for former troops who are trying to carve out success in college.

Metcalf, who spent six years on active duty in the Air Force and another six as reservist, also has reached a career crossroads. 

"I'm going back into the (Air Force) Reserves in January," he said. "I can’t afford to not work. And even though it’s a requirement that I be a full-time student to stay on the GI Bill, I can’t afford to live like this." 

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