EARNED: Education Achieved for Real-World National Service, Excellence and Duty
Under the EARNED Act, an honorable four-year enlistment would come with an accredited bachelor's degree. The GI Bill stays yours for whatever comes next.
Some earned it in a classroom. They earned it in uniform.
Veterans lead teams, manage equipment and logistics, and carry responsibility under real stakes. When they leave, most civilian employers still screen them out for lacking a bachelor's degree. The EARNED Act would fix the credential gap through the annual National Defense Authorization Act, the bill Congress passes every year.
Two paths, equal recognition. Service is a different path to higher learning, and it should open the same doors as a college degree when veterans get out. Neither path takes anything away from the other, and both deserve the same recognition.
Read the full proposal (PDF) ↗
An honorable discharge after a four-year enlistment would confer the degree automatically. No application, no added classes. How service meets the standard →
The degree would recognize the training and skills already achieved in uniform. The GI Bill stays intact for a master's, a trade license, or technical training.
Veterans who already served honorably could claim the degree using their service records and Joint Services Transcript.
Write your mayor or city council and ask them to count military service in place of a degree for city jobs.
Letter to your mayor ↗Write your state lawmakers and ask for a bill that counts military service for state jobs.
Letter to your state lawmakers ↗Write your representative and senators and ask them to introduce the EARNED Act and add it to the defense bill.
Letter to Congress ↗The Air Force has awarded accredited associate degrees to enlisted airmen through the Community College of the Air Force since 1977. Officers earn bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees from military schools. Enlisted Marines, soldiers and sailors have no degree-granting college of their own. The Navy's new U.S. Naval Community College is working toward that, but for now its students earn degrees through partner schools.
| Who serves | What the military awards them |
|---|---|
| Service academy cadets and midshipmen | Accredited bachelor's degrees |
| Mid-career officers | Master's degrees from the war colleges and Marine Corps University |
| Technical officers | Master's and PhDs from the Naval Postgraduate School and AFIT |
| Enlisted airmen | Associate degrees from CCAF, since 1977 |
| Enlisted Marines, soldiers, sailors | No degree-granting college of their own |
Military training is already evaluated for college credit by the American Council on Education and recorded on every veteran's Joint Services Transcript. The EARNED Act would turn that credit into a credential. See how four years of service meets the bachelor's degree standard →
Leaders from both parties and major employers have opened jobs to skilled workers, one step at a time. The EARNED Act would carry that progress further, with a credential that counts at a city, a hospital or a manufacturer too.
Officials count names. Every signature tells them veterans and their families want their service to count on paper.
Veterans and families: share your branch, years and story below. Your story is the strongest argument this campaign has.
This campaign doesn't support or oppose any candidate or party. Your name is never shared with a party, a campaign, an employer or the military, and never published without your permission.
Serving now? Yes, you can sign. Defense Department rules allow service members to sign a petition for specific legislative action as private citizens. Sign as yourself, off duty and out of uniform, with a personal email, and leave rank and unit out of your story.
Your name is on the petition. The best thing you can do next: send it to someone you know.
We're asking local posts, employers and officials to put their name behind the EARNED Act. No one is listed here until they confirm in writing.
Everything a post, a business owner or a family needs to bring the EARNED Act to their own city hall, statehouse and congressional office.
The full case, sources included.
Download PDF10- and 30-second pitches and answers to pushback.
Download PDFA fill-in letter, plus a one-page model policy to send if your city asks how it works.
LetterModel policyAsk your state senator and representatives for a bill that counts service for state jobs.
Download PDFFind your legislators ↗Ask your representative and senators to introduce the EARNED Act.
Download PDFFind your representative ↗Letter size, front and back, ready to print double-sided.
Download PDF24 × 18 in, front and back, for your sign printer.
Download PDFTwo 1080 × 1080 images for Instagram and Facebook.
Image 1Image 2For Legion, VFW and Marine Corps League posts to adopt.
Download PDFNot today. Military training is already evaluated for college credit by the American Council on Education and recorded on each veteran's Joint Services Transcript, but that credit only helps someone who enrolls in college, either while serving or after discharge. The EARNED Act would recognize an honorable four-year enlistment with an accredited bachelor's degree at discharge.
Sometimes. Federal hiring has moved toward skills, starting with the Chance to Compete Act of 2024, and Miami-Dade County lets veterans substitute documented active-duty experience for degree requirements in county jobs. Many cities, states and private employers still screen applicants out for lacking a degree. Ask your city to change that ↗
No. A college degree and four years of honorable service are two different paths, and both deserve the same recognition. The EARNED Act doesn't change any college degree. It recognizes a second path that already meets the standard.
A Bachelor of Arts in Defense of Freedom, with a concentration in the service member's military specialty, conferred by the military's own accredited schools.
No. Four years of full-time duty already covers the hours and content accreditors look for in a bachelor's degree, and their standards allow “the equivalent.” Members who want more coursework can still take it. See the side-by-side →
No. Service academies grant a Bachelor of Science through a full four-year academic program. The EARNED Act would confer a separate degree, a Bachelor of Arts in Defense of Freedom, for a different path that meets the same accreditation standards.
No. The degree doesn't change rank, commissioning or promotion. It recognizes what a veteran has already learned, so it counts on a job application after service.
No. The GI Bill stays fully intact for a master's degree, a trade license or technical training.
The expensive part already exists. The training, the evaluations and the transcripts are already paid for, and the Air Force's community college already uses military training records to award accredited degrees. This extends a working system instead of building a new one. Congress's budget office would score the exact cost once a bill is written.
Yes, that's the proposal. Veterans who completed an honorable four-year enlistment could claim the degree using their service records and Joint Services Transcript.
No. It's a citizen proposal. The plan is to start with cities, then states, then a bill in Congress added to the annual National Defense Authorization Act. See the path ↑
No. The EARNED Act is a nonpartisan volunteer citizen campaign started in Surprise, Arizona. It doesn't support or oppose any candidate or party, and it isn't affiliated with the Department of Defense or any branch of service.
Yes. Defense Department guidance allows service members to sign a petition for specific legislative action as private citizens, not on behalf of the armed forces. Names are never shared with a party, an employer or the military.
Add your name, share your story, and send a letter to your mayor, your state lawmakers or Congress. Veterans posts can adopt the resolution in the toolkit. Open the toolkit ↓