Caleb Antolik spent seven months working in Iraq and fighting for his country. He didn't think he'd have to fight to attend a good school.

Antolik, a 23-year-old Marine from Long Point, is like many recent war veterans drawn into the service with higher education incentives because they couldn't afford college on their own.

"Basically, any college would have been unattainable for me as far as finances went," Antolik said from the Illinois Valley Community College Campus in Oglesby.

Joining the military, he said, was his only option.

In Iraq, the soft-spoken Antolik worked security detail on a secluded base on Iraq's second-largest airfield, Al Asad. The Livingston County man spent his first year home saving money while attending IVCC after he was rejected by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Illinois veterans have much of their tuition costs covered by a state grant for veterans attending state schools. While the state is one of 22 that pays for veterans' college tuition, it's only paying part of the cost, leaving universities and other students paying veterans' tuition bills.

The state can afford to pay only $19 million of the $31 million needed to cover veterans' tuition, said Claude Walker of Illinois Student Assistance Commission.

But much of the weight falls on the shoulders of community colleges where two of three veterans, like Antolik, are choosing to go to school, according to ISAC.

Colleges are forced to educate veterans for free without receiving full reimbursement from the state.

Last year 7,461 Illinois veterans went to a community college under the veterans grant; 4,321 vets attended state universities.

Terina Folsom, a 31-year-old Iraq War vet from East Moline, is one of them.

She worked for 11 months in Iraq on tower and guard gate detail and ordered aircraft supplies for the Army. A mother of two with an associate degree, she knew she'd need help paying for her bachelor's degree.

"We were barely making it," said Folsom, who was working at UPS and a restaurant trying to make ends meet before joining the service. "I knew that I couldn't just go back to school and get my bachelor's degree with trying to support my family at the same time.

"I knew I would get the GI Bill."

She attended classes online while on active duty, which included the year she was in Iraq.

She managed to knock out about 50 credit hours that way and will graduate from Western Illinois University in December in with a degree in business management. Now, she's waiting to hear from to Southern Illinois University for a master's in business administration.

The state veterans grant and the GI Bill will cover the cost of that degree too, but money still will be tight, she said.

Colleges across the board can expect more than 2,700 National Guard members to return home next year. Many will want to use their education benefits.

The alternative is the much criticized U.S. Montgomery GI Bill. Veterans and lawmakers say it doesn't pay for a four-year degree at most state universities.

"If you were to poll most people who are in the military right now, they would think that that GI Bill pays for the full cost of education," said Patrick Campbell of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America based in New York. "Uncle Sam's paying for my education and you try to enroll in school and you're looking at $1,000 a month in tuition."

Forty-two states offer some sort of financial assistance to help their vets pay for school, including Illinois, which offers its veterans' grant.

The typical GI Joe and Jane in Illinois have access to the GI Bill, which provides about $1,100 in benefits for 36 months, and the Illinois Veterans Grant, which covers tuition and most fees at any state school or public college.

Though some veterans joke they get paid to go to school, a 21st Century GI Bill could better cover the costs of veterans' college and living expenses, they say. It would also ease the burden off community colleges.

Last year 20,038 Illinois veterans used the GI Bill. Nationally, 440,000 vets took advantage of the bill, racking up a $2.5 billion bill between all GI education programs, according to Keith Wilson of the U.S. Dept. of Veteran Affairs.

The current GI Bill covers 57 percent of a veteran's full education costs, sending 97 percent of veterans to community college first to save money, according to Campbell.

While the Illinois Veterans Grant pays for tuition, Antolik said the GI Bill could do more, like help him pay for rent, gasoline and books.

If he didn't live at home this year, he'd be broke, he said.

"It's extremely difficult to be a full-time student and succeed when you're forced to have a full-time job or another job on the side," Antolik said.

A new GI bill could help vets like him. If approved, the new bill would give him and other Illinois vets $9,742 a year in tuition money -- enough to attend any state school, including the most expensive, University of Illinois at Chicago.

He'd also get a monthly stipend based on the local cost of living -- which averages $1,060 a month in Illinois -- and $1,000 a year for books and supplies.

Plus Antolik could take up to 15 years to use his benefits instead of the 10 he has now.

The bill still is making its way through the legislative process in Washington, D.C.

With or without a new GI Bill, Antolik plans to transfer to UIC this fall to start on his industrial engineering degree with hopes to design cars some day.

But it's going to cost him.

"I'll probably get a job for sure," he said. "Probably take out loans for sure. It's going to be a heck of a struggle, but it's kind of what I planned to do."