Fritters

In Honolulu, the U.S. Government will pay the bills of veterans who want to learn the hula. In California, the Animal Lovers Association will teach an ex-G.I. to train rodeo horses--by correspondence course. He can study "sleight of hand and prestidigitation" at the Chavez School of Magic, or master the art of makeup at the San Joaquin College of Cosmetology. Other schools will show the ex-G.I. (for tuitions curiously close to the legal maximum of $500) how to make candy, model for ads, decorate a cake.

Was that what Congress meant the G.I. Bill of Rights to do? O.W. Price, regional education director of the Veterans Administration, doesn't think so. Said he in Los Angeles last week: "Many veterans choose courses that will be of no vocational benefit. Others continue to enter certain glamor courses where employment opportunities are either poor or do not exist [e.g., flying, television, plastics]. It seems a downright shame to see them frittering away their valuable benefits." The trouble, said Price, lies with state agencies which authorize frivolous courses which the Veterans Administration is bound to approve.

Price's pet peeve: flying schools. In the air-conscious area in & about Los Angeles, the VA has footed a $3,523,385 tuition bill to date--and much of the money, says Price, was squandered. As soon as the initial glamor wore off, 4,144 would-be pilots quit without finishing their training. Radio announcing is another snare: Los Angeles stations employ only 140 regular announcers, and there is a waiting list of 475 already. And yet many ex-G.I.s are enrolled at four announcing schools in Los Angeles alone.

The day Price spoke, his veterans' office approved the educational qualifications of still another new school. Its curriculum: deep-sea diving.

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