GMU event to mark Webb’s Post-9/11 GI Bill

President Barack Obama will join Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., former Sen. John W. Warner and Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki on Monday at George Mason University to mark the implementation of Webb's Post-9/11 GI Bill.

Tomorrow, the Department of Veterans Affairs will begin distributing tuition payments to schools participating in the program.

The White House says the program, which Webb introduced and Congress passed last year, "authorizes the most extensive educational assistance opportunity since the passage of the original GI Bill in 1944."

The maximum benefit allows every eligible veteran, service member, reservist and National Guard member an opportunity to receive an in-state, undergraduate education at a public institution at no cost.

In June 2008, the U.S. Senate approved new educational benefits for veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Under the bill, veterans receive vouchers to cover tuition at any public or private university in the U.S. The benefit maxes out at an amount equal to in-state tuition at a public university in the same state.

The cost is estimated at $62.8 billion over 11 years.

-- Andrew Cain