From the U.S. Government Accountability Office, www.gao.gov Transcript for: Veterans' Education Benefits Description: Audio interview by GAO staff with Melissa Emrey-Arras, Director, Education, Workforce, and Income Security Related GAO Work: GAO-14-324: VA Education Benefits: VA Should Strengthen Its Efforts to Help Veterans Make Informed Education Choices Released: May 2014 [ Background Music ] [ Narrator: ] Welcome to GAO's Watchdog Report, your source for news and information from the U.S. Government Accountability Office. It's May 2014. In fiscal year 2013, the Department of Veterans Affairs provided more than $12 billion in benefits for veterans' postsecondary education. However, questions have been raised about whether some schools are receiving these funds as a result of inappropriate recruiting practices. A team led by Melissa Emrey-Arras, a director in GAO's Education, Workforce, and Income Security team, recently looked at issues related to schools' recruitment of student veterans. GAO's Sarah Kaczmarek, sat down with Melissa to talk about what they found. [ Sarah Kaczmarek: ] Your team contacted both school officials and veterans. First, let me ask you, for the schools you looked at, what did you find in terms of recruitment practices for veterans? [ Melissa Emrey-Arras: ] Well, interestingly, we found that for all 9 schools that we contacted, they specifically marketed their services to veterans, and actually 7 of them had separate offices or officials specifically designated to recruit veterans. And in terms of the recruiting, they actually used a variety of strategies ranging from mass market advertising to individually contacting veterans, so in some cases they would publish ads online or in newspapers for local military bases, while in other cases, they would outreach via e-mail or phone to veterans who were looking to find a school to attend with their GI bill benefits. [ Sarah Kaczmarek: ] In your survey of student veterans, what did they tell you about their recruiting experiences? [ Melissa Emrey-Arras: ] We did a national survey of student veterans who had received GI bill benefits, and this was really the first of its kind in, in finding out what student veterans have, in fact, experienced aside from sort of individual stories here and there, and our national study found that 23 percent, that's about 15,200 veterans, when generalized nationally to the population who received post 9/11 GI bill benefits, those folks reported receiving excessive contact from schools, and it estimated 10 percent, or about 6,900 veterans nationwide said that they actually felt pressure to enroll in a school. On an individual level, what that means is that according to students who completed our survey, they may be experiencing constant or daily e-mails or phone calls, even after they inform a school that they are no longer interested or have, in fact, enrolled in another school. For example, one student in our survey said that a school both called and e-mailed her for a month after she requested an information packet, and then encouraged her to attend a campus out of state after they had closed down the campus that was closest to her. In addition, our national survey found that about 23 percent of all student veterans reported receiving some information that they viewed as inaccurate, such as the amount of student loan debt that they would have upon graduation, or the job placement rates for their school after graduation. [ Sarah Kaczmarek: ] What recommendations did your team end up making, then, to the VA in this report? [ Melissa Emrey-Arras: ] We recommended that the Department of Veterans Affairs improve its outreach on educational counseling services, and also improve its project planning services to help student veterans. In terms of educational counseling, the department has available one-on-one counselors who can assist prospective student veterans in choosing a school; however, our survey found that almost half of veterans were not aware that this service existed, and less than 2 percent of eligible veterans have, in fact, applied for this service in the last few years. In terms of project planning, we found that while the Department of veterans Affairs had several ongoing projects to assist student veterans, they tend to plan for those projects on a month-to-month basis without a long-term plan in place to make sure that they can meet their goals. [ Sarah Kaczmarek: ] Finally, what do you see as the bottom line of this report? [ Melissa Emrey-Arras: ] Our survey results found that nationally, thousands of veterans receiving GI bill benefits experience problems with school recruiting, and that includes receiving inaccurate information from schools, excessive contact from schools, pressure to enroll from schools, and these numbers highlight the fact that students need to be better protected and informed to prevent them from squandering their educational benefits on programs that really don't meet their needs. [ Background Music ] [ Narrator: ] To learn more, visit gao.gov, and be sure to tune in to the next episode of GAO's Watchdog Report for more from the congressional watchdog, the U.S. Government Accountability Office.