Episode Title: The Late For Changeover Show
Date: Jul 17, 2024
All right, let’s talk about some good news for military members who are about to get out of the service. I like it. Now it’s not good news.
It’s not good news. It’s another RAND report. Curse the RAND Corporation.
Not RAND Corporation, but the RAND organization. And another bad outcome. So, from military.com, military transition programs focus too much on higher education and not enough on jobs.
A RAND report says. So, this will burn you up, but it will be some interesting discussions. Because I want to know where you guys are on the tap and when you took it and all that other stuff.
So, federal programs used to help service members transition to civilian life are too focused on education and are not spending enough money and time working toward finding them employment. And some seemingly aren’t effective at all, according to a new study. The new report, published this week by RAND Corporation, a federally funded think tank focused on military issues takes a deep dive into how the roughly… How much would you think is spent annually helping service members transition? Would you think a billion dollars for helping service members transition? I wouldn’t be surprised.
I mean, it’s the government. So, I don’t know how much money it takes. You know what else is in that now is that a freaking transition program where they’re skill bridge.
So, they have to pay you to go over and work for free with the company. Yeah, and that’s your rank, your BAH. So, that might be in that.
Well, that would make more sense because the RAND Corporation looked into, it took a deep dive into how the roughly 13 billion dollars spent annually on helping service members transition out of the ranks is used and whether it’s effective. What? 13 billion. We’re spending 13 billion.
No way. Here’s your book. Open it up to page five.
Sign your name and have a good day. I mean, how many are in the total military? Less than a million or a million, maybe? Less than a million, right? I don’t think there’s a million. There’s probably not even a million, right? And we’re spending 13 billion dollars annually on people getting out.
The TAP program, because like… Just give them a million. Hey, thanks. That’s great.
If you ever go online, those TAP instructors don’t get paid a lot. Like, you’ll look at TAP instructors, and they only get paid by the hour. Some of them get paid pretty crap because I see those jobs all the time.
Right. Hosted. So, okay.
So, where’s that? Where’s that one? Where’s the money? Those frickin’ books? I don’t know. Maybe they’re giving themselves bonuses like the VA did, you know? Unbelievable. Good call on that.
The RAND report found redundancies and issues. Namely, that the programs focus too much on higher education. RAND researchers said, quote, dedicating significant portions of the transition budget is also unsurprising because of the high and growing costs of college.
So, now you start going, hmm, here’s this vicious circle again, right? College tuition goes up, government subsidies go up, and it’s just like, ooh, we’re making money. Just putting these guys in debt. Okay, the researchers also raised concerns over whether the programs are doing what they are supposed to do.
For instance, the Defense Department’s Transition Assistance Program, or TAP, had a negative effect in some cases. The report found that out. They were like, oh, this is negative.
These guys are being hurt by this program. By the way, how many homeless veterans do we now have to transition down the military? Yeah, what’s happening now? I’m homeless. I’m homeless.
According to the report, quote, there is virtually no evidence that any of the programs we examine have had a direct effect on transition outcomes. In some cases, the evidence is counterintuitive. For example, the large interagency TAP, which is overseen by DOD, is associated with lower rate wages for program participants.
McDonald’s, here you go. Rand looked at 45 programs ranging from major initiatives such as the Post-9-11 GI Bill, veteran readiness and employment run by the Department of Veterans Affairs, DOD’s Tuition Assistance Program, and VA survivors and dependents educational assistance, as well as a host of smaller ones. It determined that, quote, oversight is weak across all 45 programs and found that there are numerous redundancies and available transition programs and services.
Overall, researchers recommended there be more oversight and accountability for these programs and even suggest Congress get involved in sorting out some of the financial information. $13 billion? Yeah, $13 billion. I mean, it’s not… Well, they gave us $100,000 and we helped a couple people with it.
Well, so like how much is being allocated to DOD? How much is being allocated to the VA? Because the VA, he’s named like two, three programs, right? So the GI Bill. Let’s see. So they got Post-9-11 GI Bill, veteran readiness and employment run by the Department of Veterans Affairs, DOD’s Tuition Assistance Program.
Is that different than Post-9-11? It is. And then VA survivors and dependents educational assistance. That’s just saying they’re going to spend $2,000 to bury you.
That’s all that’s doing. Here’s your two grand. You’ll need a supplement to do this because the DOD Tuition Assistance, it’s the $4,500 we were allocated every year.
Yeah, it’s why do they have all these divisions? Why do they have all these different programs, man? $13 billion. And they’re all mismanaged according to this report. Jake, can you say $13 billion? It’s so much money.
Okay, here’s the capper. Rand’s report comes on the heels of several GAO reports probing various aspects of the Transition Assistance Program. A December 2022 report from the GAO said the Tuition Assistance Program lacked timely participation, revealing that quote, nearly 25% of service members who needed maximum support didn’t attend the mandatory two-day class.
Okay, nobody wants to go to tap. And that most service members didn’t start the program at least one year before leaving service as normally required. What do you mean normally required? That was never told to me.
Never was that told to me. It was told to me that you could register for it up to a year before. Mine was required.
A year before you retired? Yeah, I don’t even remember any of that. Not me. Okay, so my point is we’re all in the same boat in the sense that we’re like, hey, I think I’ll retire next year.
So let me start laying the groundwork for my transition now. Right? And that’s what it’s saying. It’s like, you should be taking this a year prior.
Bullshit. More than your commander’s not going to let you go for a week to go take a tap class when you’re retiring next year. Yeah.
Okay, Jake, role play with me real quick. Let’s pretend we’re security forces in Turkey. First of all, you can’t even leave base.
I’m your commander and you want to ask me if you could go to school. So go, go ahead. Hey, sir.
I saw this brochure for AMU. They said I could take classes online. Oh, yeah.
Yeah. Or but there is one in class. I have to go in person Monday.
Monday and Wednesday Friday. You’re such a good troop, man. I’d love to let you do that.
But we got this asshole playing football half the fucking year and he’s not here. So I need you to work while he goes out and plays football. So sorry.
Well, there you go. What’s more important here? The commander’s trophy over in Europe. Or more.
Or some piece of shit degree. From AMU. So that’s it.
That’s how that went down in Turkey. Jake, I got to tell you, being a wild boar turkey bowl champion is much more important than that degree. That’s gotten you farther than a sociologist.
That’s true. We probably have. No, I’m at school.