Author Topic: Get Uncle Sugar to spend $ 500,000 on flight school for you  (Read 728 times)

MillCreek

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Get Uncle Sugar to spend $ 500,000 on flight school for you
« on: March 16, 2015, 03:35:31 PM »
http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-me-adv-gibill-20150315-story.html#page=1

Use the GI Bill and get hundreds of thousands of dollars to spend on helicopter flight school to get a job paying $ 40-70K per year.  And 60% of the students end up dropping out.  It would be much cheaper to send them to undergrad and then medical, business or law school instead.
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MillCreek
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Quote from: Angel Eyes on August 09, 2018, 01:56:15 AM
You are one lousy risk manager.

MechAg94

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Re: Get Uncle Sugar to spend $ 500,000 on flight school for you
« Reply #1 on: March 16, 2015, 04:08:34 PM »
I guess the link just takes me to the main page.  Can you explain more?
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MillCreek

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Re: Get Uncle Sugar to spend $ 500,000 on flight school for you
« Reply #2 on: March 16, 2015, 04:25:17 PM »
Hmm, the link is working for me.  But here are the first few paragraphs of the story:

For some flight schools that train helicopter pilots, the GI Bill that took effect in 2009 was a windfall the government never intended.

Helicopter schools had been struggling financially, and the bill excluded them from direct funding. But after finding a loophole in the law that allows them to train military veterans completely at government expense, with no cap on what they can charge, the schools rapidly expanded. They now collect tens of millions a year in taxpayer dollars.

For two years of training to become a pilot, the government often pays more than $250,000, over twice the amount non-veterans pay at many schools, The Times has found from interviews, government documents, price lists and flight school contracts.

At one flight company — Utah-based Upper Limit Aviation — records show 12 veterans whose training had cost the government more than $500,000 each.
Training costs

Upper Limit's fees make it the costliest education of any type funded by the GI Bill. The company will collect roughly $36 million this year from the government, based on its current enrollment and estimates it submitted to the state of Utah.
_____________
Regards,
MillCreek
Snohomish County, WA  USA


Quote from: Angel Eyes on August 09, 2018, 01:56:15 AM
You are one lousy risk manager.

Phantom Warrior

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Re: Get Uncle Sugar to spend $ 500,000 on flight school for you
« Reply #3 on: March 16, 2015, 09:26:23 PM »
It's the inescapable law of higher education.  The more funding available, the more costs will grow.  Do something nice to make school more affordable for veterans and schools will figure out a way to cash in on it.

Honestly, how many politicians are likely to want to take up a cost reduction measure that will be immediately portrayed as short changing veterans?  Remember the tuition assistance cuts?

bedlamite

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Re: Get Uncle Sugar to spend $ 500,000 on flight school for you
« Reply #4 on: March 16, 2015, 09:33:35 PM »
Maybe RevDisk could learn to fly a Hind ...  :laugh:
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Is defenestration possible through the overton window?

MechAg94

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Re: Get Uncle Sugar to spend $ 500,000 on flight school for you
« Reply #5 on: March 16, 2015, 10:10:57 PM »
And I guess it is the nature of bureaucracy to simply pay it without comment?

The link works at home.  Must be the firewall at work or something.
“It is much more important to kill bad bills than to pass good ones.”  ― Calvin Coolidge