Originally Posted by Phil Hoskins
NWP, I like your thinking about the GI Bill, but have a problem with it being a way to continue the US being militarily adventurous. .... The same benefits could be extended to all who participate in the tax system. I believe the net economic effect would be positive and pay for itself over time.
I did not find the original article that presented this idea, Phil, but may have come up with something even better: A GI Bill For Everybody
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The dynamics set in motion by the GI Bill had broad, positive ramifications for the country as a whole, extending far beyond the direct beneficiaries. Not only did the latter benefit from increased income, occupational and employment opportunities, and personal growth and enrichment; these benefits extended intergenerationally, making for greater opportunities for their children and families, which contributed to a general expansion in college enrollments through the 1970s, far outstripping population growth. Enrollments increased by nearly 21 percent between 1950-1960 and nearly 167 percent between 1960-1970. In 1950, for example, 1.7 percent of the total U.S. population were enrolled in colleges and universities; by 1975, the figure had risen steadily to 5.2 percent. This growth also fueled a dramatic expansion of colleges and universities. Bulging enrollments led to substantial enlargement of physical plant and capacities at existing institutions. Increased demand for higher education also prompted creation of new institutions, many of them public campuses in urban and under-served rural areas that brought higher education physically within reach of new segments of society. The Bureau of the Census counted 1,708 institutions of higher education in 1940 and 1,959 in 1960; by 1981, the number had risen to more than 3,200. All this expansion in turn stimulated construction and other employment opportunities, ranging from faculties and staff to support services and the commercial sector. It also dramatically democratized college and university life and broadened and deepened the intellectual life of campuses and academic disciplines. Michael J. Bennett writes movingly of the GI Bill's democratizing cultural and intellectual effects in When Dreams Came True: The GI Bill and the Making of Modern America.
I highly commend the reading the entire article.
Some other articles I have come across:
The G.I. Bill, 70 years later

How Everyone Could Get A Free College Education Like Starbucks Employees Now Will
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There’s a way for everyone to get a free college education, however. The government could take the $69 billion it already spends to subsidize the cost of a college education through grants, tax breaks, and work-study funding and simply cover the $63 billion tuition spent at public colleges. This would mean anyone could avail themselves of a free college degree and it would also likely incentivize private universities to lower their prices in order to compete.
Universal basic education is the millennium goal everyone forgot
Hero worship of the military is getting in the way of good policy

Indeed, I'm so taken with the topic, I think I'll start a new thread on it to develop it further.

A well reasoned argument is like a diamond: impervious to corruption and crystal clear - and infinitely rarer.

Here, as elsewhere, people are outraged at what feels like a rigged game -- an economy that won't respond, a democracy that won't listen, and a financial sector that holds all the cards. - Robert Reich