Sunday is the 64th anniversary of the G.I. Bill, which sent a generation of veterans to college after World War II. CBS Sunday Morning features a segment on the history of the landmark legislation and the push in Congress to improve the current G.I. Bill (a puny shadow of its former self) to provide better education benefits for soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. Guests include California author Edward Humes, who wrote Over Here: How the G.I. Bill Transformed The American Dream.

On CBS Radio, the Osgood File previews Sunday’s show. Read a californiaauthors.com excerpt excerpt from the book here.

At the Over Here blog, Ed writes:

Senator James Webb of Virginia is championing an update to the GI Bill that will give today’s veterans something a bit closer to the original World War II GI Bill, one of the wisest investments America ever made. Webb thinks our soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines ought to be able to actually go to four years of college on the GI Bill’s education benefits — something impossible today given the disparity between what the military covers and what the average public university charges. The last time American made such an investment in a generation — in the 1940s and 1950s — it ushered in an era of unrivaled prosperity, invention, innovation and standard of living.

Also on Sunday, Senator Webb will be speaking at the Beverly Hills Hotel as part of the Writers Bloc program sponsored by Town Hall Los Angeles.

In a fact sheet at his website (.pdf), the senator notes that three former Presidents, a dozen U.S. Senators, three Supreme Court Justices and fourteen Nobel Prize winners went to school on the G.I. bill. (Browse a .pdf list of well-known beneficiaries here.) He also says:

The education of our nation’s veterans is a cost of war. A very small percentage of Americans have stepped forward to serve our country through military service; they have earned the right to have a bright future when they have completed their service. A G.I. bill that properly rewards honorable service is the right thing to do. The estimated $4 billion a year needed for the program equals one week of war in Iraq and Afghanistan.

*Monday Update: View the CBS Sunday Morning cover story here. Join the discussion about benefits for returning soldiers here.

As Congress moves closer to approving new G.I. Bill, UC Berkeley rolls out the welcome mat for returning soldiers.