A newly pro­posed bill in Ohio (House Bill 153) changes the old model for Vet­er­ans Pref­er­ence when ex-military can­di­dates apply for state jobs. The new pro­vi­sion no longer allows vet­er­ans the same hir­ing ben­e­fit from ser­vice as before. Vet­er­ans will still get addi­tional points added to their “score” of around 20 per­cent. These scores are com­piled after an assess­ment of the back­ground, qual­i­fi­ca­tions and expe­ri­ence of the appli­cant. With the new bill, Ohio agen­cies are able to select from the top 25 per­cent of appli­cants when more than 10 peo­ple apply and can now view all the scor­ing side by side, before and after the Pref­er­ence Points. This will erode the ben­e­fit of the pref­er­ence, in cer­tain cases.

Explained. For exam­ple, Bill Vet­eran and Joe Col­lege apply for the same job and have the best cre­den­tials. Bill scores 100 and Joe scores 95. Add the 20 per­cent Pref­er­ence. Now Bill scores 120. But Joe may still get the job because his score is within 25 per­cent of the top score.

Who cares? While this change may sound insignif­i­cant to some, it places a lim­ited ben­e­fit to mil­i­tary ser­vice, some­thing gov­ern­ment employ­ers used to value. In addi­tion, a vet­eran could score higher with­out the pref­er­ence and still not get the job because of the top 25 per­cent hir­ing cut­off. As a result, it could encour­age crony­ism, some­thing our gov­ern­ment needs lot less of these days. So, for the gov­ern­ment hir­ing agents who have a par­tic­u­lar dis­dain for vet­er­ans, this could become a prob­lem. As a result, there may no longer be a ben­e­fit of ser­vice in this arena. In typ­i­cal 1984 Dou­ble Speak, a vet­eran still gets the “Vet­er­ans Pref­er­ence” with­out the actual pref­er­ence. Yet another clas­sic chip away at the vet­er­ans ben­e­fits we earned. More wars, but less ben­e­fits for those who fight them

Another nail in the cof­fin. State and Fed­eral jobs used to be a reli­able alter­na­tive to pri­vate sec­tor employ­ment for vet­er­ans choos­ing to align their careers with their mil­i­tary ser­vice. After ser­vice, a gov­ern­ment job served as a straight­for­ward way to con­tinue a career in ser­vice of coun­try with­out the incon­sis­ten­cies of mil­i­tary life. With the cur­rent down­ward trend in hir­ing of vet­er­ans, now more than ever, these gov­ern­ment jobs serve as a reli­able source of employ­ment. Pri­vate sec­tor employ­ers are reluc­tant to fill job open­ings with vet­er­ans return­ing from Iraq and Afghanistan, caus­ing many vet­er­ans to omit mil­i­tary ser­vice from their resumes. But high vet­eran unem­ploy­ment and hir­ing dis­crim­i­na­tion be-damned. Our coun­try is quickly devel­op­ing a Vietnam-esq amne­sia when it comes to her vet­er­ans.

Take Action. For Ohio vet­er­ans, don’t take this one in the rump. Con­tact your Ohio state rep­re­sen­ta­tive to let them know we will not be for­got­ten again.