INTRODUCTION

Chairwoman Herseth Sandlin and Ranking Member Boozman and members of the House Veterans Affairs Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity on behalf of the Blinded Veterans Association (BVA), we thank you for this opportunity to present our testimony today regarding  Licensure and Certification of Transitioning Veterans. As you know the unemployment rate for our returning veterans today is terrible and anything we can do to address this issue is critical because unemployment causes economic as well as additional psycho-social stress for not only the veteran but their families.  BVA is celebrating 65 years of service and is the only Veterans Service Organization (VSO) exclusively dedicated to serving the needs of our Nation’s blinded veterans and their families. 

BVA has joined with the other VSOs in making recommendations today to improve the  unemployment numbers for our veterans which now exceed the national rate 14 percent and even higher for some reserve and National Guard members. We would urge those who are disturbed by those general unemployment numbers to please consider the rate of unemployment for disabled working age population (18-64) with sensory loss in America is 45 percent and they also face more challenges in this time of economic instability. Improving VA Vocational Rehabilitation Chapter 31 subsistence allowance and ensuring that the new Post 9/ 11 GI bill covers as many types of educational programs as possible is vital in improving this employment picture for veterans. Along with this must be the ability to transition military skills into civilian jobs by obtaining college credit hours for the Military Occupational Skill (MOS) education they receive often over years of their service to our nation.

With any veteran today the “pileup of unemployment” in the current economy is worse when one reviews recent article describing how the bottom fell out for the job market for the most recent college graduating class of 2009. The Collegiate Employment Research Institute at Michigan State University, which tracks trends in employment of new college graduates nationwide found last spring large employer companies hired 42 percent fewer graduates than they had originally targeted when the school year started in 2008. In 2009 the unemployment rate for four year degree graduates stood at 8.8 percent double what it was in 2006. Veterans returning from the wars are competing in the age group of 21-to-24 year old college graduates who are unemployed and then adding to this mixture is the older experienced workers, who have been laid off searching for even entry level jobs, they often have advanced degrees with previous senior experience worsening this overall situation more slowing down the normal escalator of career progression.[1]

SERVICE MEMBERS OCCUPATIONAL CONVERSION AND TRAINING

As the VA Committee examines the entire issue of returning service members with military skills that are not easily converted into civilian employment. Congress might consider restarting a program similar to the Service Members Occupational Conversion and Training, (SMOCTA) program.  Instead of being funded by the Department of Defense as in the old program we recommend it should be administered by the VA and the DOL. This was considered one of the better programs to serve transitioning military personnel in 1990’s that have limited transferable military occupational skills MOS that do not correlate with civilian positions.. SMOCTA also would assist those Reserve and Army National Guard members reentering the workforce following deployments.

MILITARY MEDICS AND CORPSMEN TRANSITIONING

According to the Veterans of Foreign Wars more than 1,300 Army medics have served in Afghanistan, and more than 8,000 have served in Iraq, based on the number of Combat Medical Badges awarded. More than 97 percent today of soldiers who are wounded are being saved (compared with 80% in Vietnam) and many credit the advanced emergency medical training of medics and corpsmen for this front line improvement in survival rates.5 If these skilled medics and corpsmen can provide primary and emergency care in a combat zone, they can be a huge benefit in rural and remote areas here at home—provided they are given the chance to do so with complementary civilian college PA education. Today PAs are well established in the civilian, military, and other federal health care systems, but barriers in the academic community prevent experienced medics and corpsmen from ever entering PA college program despite the fact they have on average 704 hours of initial medical training and for Special Forces Medical Skills (SFMS) training is 48 weeks in length.

On April 15 2010, this Subcommittee and on May 25, 2010 before the VA Committee Round Table discussion on employment issues the VSO witnesses cited the same problem of returning highly experience combat Army medics, Navy corpsmen, Air Force paramedics not being able to find jobs that accepted the high level of military advanced medical training and emergency medical care experience they had obtained. BVA along with the other VSO’s would recommend that the VA Subcommittee include legislation this session for pilot “Veteran Medic/Corpsman Transition to PA Program” that would provide funding assistance in the form of VA Transition educational grants to accredited Physician Assistant Programs that provide the veteran student with these medical skills the additional college education necessary for certification and licensure. Grants would help the pilot college programs in doing individual transcript assessments, educational academic course counseling, develop training plans, and supportive services for the veteran applicant.  I would point out that in the late 1960’s and into 1970’s when thousands of returning Vietnam combat medics and corpsmen were strongly encouraged to attend PA programs because of their emergency medical life saver skills this was highly successful. The Department of Labor has listed the physician assistant occupation in the top ten occupations for career growth in next decade and the demand for rural health care providers is growing.

FROM SOLDIER TO STUDENT BRIDGING THE GAPS of TRANSITION

In a ground breaking educational survey of academic colleges and universities report July 2009 “From Soldier to Student Bridging the Gap of Transition of Service Members on Campus” the American Council on Education (ACE) working with Service Members Opportunity Colleges (SMOC) and American Association State Colleges and Universities (AASCU) examined the current state of veterans transitioning into academic programs. While more than half of those who responded to surveys (57 percent) offer programs and services specifically designed for veterans, these were in the Office of Financial Aid offering information on loans, discounts for veterans, and college aid for veterans. Only (49 percent) offered office for employment services and even fewer (48 percent) offered veterans an office for academic advising. Significantly fewer 33 percent offered programs or services specifically designed to assist veterans with physical disabilities and less visible disabilities such as Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) and 23 percent had staffed trained to assist veterans with these conditions respectively.[2] While many colleges surveyed have plans to increase the programs for veterans on campuses that leaves gaps for those trying to enter colleges today.

Focus groups of veterans highlighted that more academic counseling services to analyze and award credit for military training and occupational skills is necessary. While the AARTS/ SMART Programs provide active duty personnel or veterans of the Army (AARTS) or Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps (SMART) with an official transcript of military training or courses evaluated by American Counsel Education (ACE) and 2,300 public colleges do recognize these ACE endorsed transcripts as official documentation of military training, the student veteran must still find the academic counselor who will match the courses to admission and degree requirements which is lacking on many campuses.[3]  The American Association Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Office (AACRAO), along with Council For Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) and ACE developed and published a joint statement on the issue of “transfer and Award of Academic credit. It is important because it highlights that in the world of changing academic programs, with growing on-line degree programs, and institutions offering distant learning credits, that it is still up to the individual academic institution to consider inter-institutional transfers of credit involving these considerations: 1) The educational quality of the learning; 2) the comparability of the nature, content, and level of the learning experience to that offered by the receiving institution; and 3.) The appropriateness and applicability of the learning experience to the programs offered by the receiving institution in light of the student’s educational goals.

In questioning former military medics and corpsmen, they also pointed to these web sites where military occupational skill (MOS) courses can be translated into credits for courses completed. The use Navy College.com and the American Council of Education (ACE):  http://www.acenet.edu/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Military_Programs
Which uses this site for colleges to evaluate course taken in the military: http://www.acenet.edu/Content/NavigationMenu/ProgramsServices/MilitaryPrograms/ResourcesCollegeUniv.htm .  However, former corpsmen point to the difficulty of having academic institutions accept that the Navy medical corpsmen may attend variety MOS medical skill schools ranging from the basic A school ‘Navy Hospital Corpsmen School’ and then other senior enlisted B and C schools that focus on more advanced medical skills training from everything from Operating Room, Aviation, Special Operations Warfare, Diving, Tropical Medicine, with each adding higher levels of skill training and experience. Part of this complex struggle is not just translating the military courses into college credits but finding academic counselors who will individually assist the veteran with proper academic placement within any civilian college degree program.

VOCATIONAL REHABILITATION SERVICES

In FY 2009, VR&E was authorized 1,105 FTEs.  As endorser with IBVSOs BVA is concerned members of the committee when informed that this number has been “frozen” due to the unknown impact the implementation of chapter 33 benefits will have on the VR&E program.  Last year, VSOIB recommended that total staffing be increased to manage the current and anticipated workload as stated in the Secretary’s VR&E Task Force. VA currently has approximately 106,000 enrollees in Chapter 31.  The IBVSOs believe that a ratio of 1:96 (which includes administrative support) is inadequate to provide the level of counseling and support that our wounded and disabled veterans need to achieve success in their employment goals. BVA supports the recommendation of the IBVSOs that Congress should authorize 1,375 total FTEs for the Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment Service for FY 2010. The Chapter 31 VR subsistence and housing allowance must be increased to allow service connected disabled veterans the ability to meet the additional costs of attending school.

CONCLUSIONS

Madam Chair and members of this subcommittee, BVA would appreciate inclusion of the following issues in your list of changes as you move forward to improve the employment situation for our veterans.  Our military service members since 2001 have repeatedly sacrificed for their country and while congress is trying to create higher employment for our citizens our veterans should be given special consideration and additional educational assistance. BVA again appreciated the chance to provide this testimony and will answer any questions you might have now.

RECOMMENDATIONS:

1. Disabled veterans must experience a real seamless transition from the DoD to the VA disability Vocational benefits program with adequate staffing to meet the needs of this growing population of service connected veterans.  It requires that the continuum of health care and VA benefits processing be done efficiently—through a special office of compliance if necessary between DoD and VA.
2. Recommend pilot educational assistance grant program for five years for Physician Assistant Programs to assist returning veterans with medical skills into the programs with grants as Military Pathways Demonstration Programs. These grants to accredited physician assistant colleges would assist transitioning military medical personnel to build upon occupational military medical skills in military jobs to enter the growing demand for physician assistant workforce.
3. BVA supports the recommendation of the IBVSOs that Congress should authorize 1,375 total FTEs for the Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment Service for FY 2010. The Chapter 31 VR subsistence and housing allowance must be increased to allow service connected disabled veterans the ability to meet the additional costs of attending school.

[1] The Next Economy “Children of Great Recession” Ronald Brownstein Summer 2010 pages 5- 6.

[2] From Soldier to Student Bridging the Gap of Transition of Service Members on Campus July 2009 ACE page iii.

[3] From Solider to Student Bridging the Gap of Transition July 2009 Page 23.