"The sad reality is that while the cost of college has vastly increased, the education benefits available to today's war veterans have greatly decreased," according to a New York Times letter to the editor. "Veterans must pay their own tuition, room and board, and other college costs up front, and then are reimbursed only up to their eligible benefit amount over the course of the semester. And benefits count against federal student aid. Today's veterans are sacrificing so much for this country. Long after they leave the fighting on the battlefield, why should they have to fight to go to college?"