According to a Sloan Consortium annual report, more than one in four college students now take at least one course online. With that in mind, House Veterans' Affairs Committee Chairman Bob Filner, D-Calif., introduced an amendment to the G.I. Bill to provide full housing allowance benefits for veterans who pursue degrees online, and it passed the Economic Opportunity Subcommittee by voice vote on March 4.

According to the Department of Defense, approximately 467,000 active duty personnel participated in online college courses in 2009. Yet if they continue their online schooling as veterans when they become eligible for the G.I. Bill they will not receive housing allowances.

Under the G.I. Bill, one payment for tuition goes to the institution while the housing allowance goes to the veteran, so the allowance is a crucial stipend for veterans who are parents, who already work or who are disabled. Air Force Spec. Nathan Meadows, 26, is in all three of those categories and needs the convenience of online schooling through American Military University. Meadows was injured by a misfired missile while stationed at a base in Florida, and has severe back pain.

"It's hard to be 26 and feel like you're 90," Meadows said. "I work more than 60 hours a week, and I'm also a husband and father of two little girls. Then when I get home I spend time with them -- which is not a lot -- and then I hop online and take my degree courses... I still need to pay for books -- for the courses, too. That $1,000-per-month allowance would take a lot of stress off my back."

Meadows is one of many who were encouraged to take courses online while on active duty. Another is Student Veterans of America spokesman Brian Hawthorne, who finished his associate's degree online while deployed in Iraq, and is now leading his group's charge for the growing number of online degree seekers to receive the same "great coverage" he receives as a George Washington University student.

"This is an insult to the community of online learners who work very, very hard and find it's suddenly more appealing to get lesser education somewhere else than to continue their degree online," Hawthorne said. "We want to support them to go to school online full-time and get their degree in a reasonable time frame.... I did that, and GWU took every credit."

Online education has particularly increased among the active duty force because of its convenience during multiple deployments, according to James Sweizer, vice president of Military Programs at American Military University.

Sweizer, who worked as chief of Air Force's Voluntary Education Program between 1999 and 2005, said the Defense Department did a poor job of conveying the growing importance of online learning to Congress during the drafting process.

"There was kind of a bias against online learning," said Sweizer. "Some looked at how including it might be fraud since they thought it would be compared to the campus of the online school, instead of based on where they lived."

Defense Department spokeswoman Eileen Lainez would not speculate on G.I. Bill decisions made by Congress or "veterans' college preferences."

"The Department of Defense was not part of any detailed discussions regarding the provision in the statute that blocks qualification for the living allowance for veterans training via distance learning -- nor was this a focus area at GI Bill hearings," Lainez said.

House Veterans' Affairs Committee member John Hall, D-N.Y., contends that the Defense Department should have shared more information about active duty personnel during the drafting of the GI Bill. Hall cites online learning as one of a number of gaps in coverage he would like his committee to amend.

"Some of the other major improvements to the GI Bill that have been suggested are to allow technical and trade schools that don't grant degrees to be eligible, to improve the transfer of benefits to a veteran's dependents, and to ensure that all National Guard and Reserve members are eligible," Hall said. "I support these changes."