Jose Ayon, a U.S. Army Reserve captain, is grateful for the education benefits he received for serving overseas.
“I’ve been very fortunate – blessed – to be getting my master’s degree through USC because of the Post-9/11 GI Bill,” said Ayon, who was deployed to Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Bahrain.
But Ayon, who is pursuing a Master of Public Administration (MPA) at the USC Price School of Public Policy, wishes more people like himself could get those benefits.
The Post-9/11 GI Bill, which helps veterans pay for school or job training, is limited to those who served at least 90 days on active duty. That excludes many of Ayon’s fellow Reserve members who are never activated, as well as members of the state-based National Guard.
“I have colleagues who are on the Reserve side and are still serving, still training, still meeting with their units year-round, but they’ve never been activated and they don’t qualify,” Ayon said.
Ayon is trying to change that. He’s pushing Congress to pass a bill that would expand eligibility for Post-9/11 Educational Assistance to National Guard and Reserve members who perform certain full-time duty. Ayon will soon meet with U.S. Representatives in California to see if they will sponsor the bill, which is currently before House and Senate committees on veterans’ affairs. He will also head to Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., this spring to support the legislation.
The advocacy work is part of the VFW-SVA Legislative Fellowship he recently won. The fellowship is a semester-long experience in which students receive advocacy training and mentorship. They also advocate for a policy supported by the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) and Student Veterans of America (SVA).
Supporting the Guard and Reserve GI Bill Parity Act
The inequity in military education benefits was perhaps most pronounced during the COVID-19 pandemic, when many National Guard and Reserve members were sent into cities to help administer vaccines and other health services. Ayon noted that some National Guard members are mobilized more often than those in active duty. Yet they are ineligible for educational assistance.
“At the end of the day, these service members are held to the same standard, the same sort of requirements as active duty,” Ayon said. “Opening the doors for education would be wonderful for these service members. We can use it as a recruiting and retaining mechanism.”
Ayon was already an advocate for veterans before winning the fellowship. While pursuing his MPA in Sacramento, he works for the California Department of Veteran Affairs and hopes to move up the ladder at the state agency after earning his USC degree.
In the meantime, he believes passing the bill, called the Guard and Reserve GI Bill Parity Act of 2024, could help thousands of veterans.
“Taking care of people, taking care of service members is what I’m passionate about,” Ayon said. “And this particular bill in Congress would do just that.”
