That seems almost like an argument in semantics. Couldn't the flight school just label it a "commercial license" program in order to allow the funding from the GI Bill?
Has to do with the reporting process for the VA. So for a "flight" student attending a part 141, you submit the enrollment period and have to select a "rating" that you are working towards. PPL is not included, the reality is that the "certifying official" (a so called VA trained designated person within the organization that is doing the reporting, conflict of interest) has a lot of room to screw that up as the VA regulations on what is allowed and what isn't are all there just very hard to dig out of the available information. So while you can call it a commercial license program, you can not actually report it as such. The VA makes up for this by doing a lot of auditing of paperwork and proof of student progress. They pick it apart to see if you checked for certain things and were documenting it accordingly. Yes is as cumbersome and painful as you can imagine (VERY hard for a traditional school, the "non-flight" students, as there are 10 different GI Bill programs).
Now, back to the traditional 4 year "non-flight" training, if it is a degree seeking program that includes commercial or whatever ratings, it will pay for the PPL rating as it is part of "tuition and fees".
So guess what I am trying to say is:
1) report training as a "commercial program"
2) regs say "no PPL"
3)VA checks student records and all things pertaining to the student (transcripts, hours, grades, progression, that you didn't bill for classes/hours that do not apply or that are explicitly not covered)
4) If the school in fact did that, they freeze all of your federal accounts and any GI BIll money.
BTW this actually happened. Basically, an idiot was running the reporting at our school but never came to work. The office languished for a few months. A real director came on board and did some amazing things and really got into understanding the VA and going out of her way to get the available training and resources (that the school had no idea were available, much less important). Well she worked for a year to resolve some serious financial errors from the previous idiot overbilling resulting in the students walking away with pockets of cash. She actually had paid the money back from the school's accounts and the VA made an error. Without any prior notice they shut down/froze every single account dealing with financial aid/operations/pell grants/student loans etc. They don't screw around.
You can only imagine what it was like when the president of the university shows up asking me about these payments!
