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THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA TUITION ACCESS

GRANT PROGRAM

HEARING

BEFORE THE

SUBCOMMITTEE ON FEDERAL WORKFORCE,

POSTAL SERVICE, AND THE DISTRICT

OF COLUMBIA

OF THE

COMMITTEE ON OVERSIGHT

AND GOVERNMENT REFORM

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

ONE HUNDRED TENTH CONGRESS

FIRST SESSION

ON

H.R. 1124

TO EXTEND THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA COLLEGE ACCESS ACT OF

1999

MARCH 22, 2007

Serial No. 110–20

Printed for the use of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform

(

Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.gpoaccess.gov/congress/index.html

http://www.house.gov/reform

(II)

COMMITTEE ON OVERSISGHT AND GOVERNMENT REFORM

HENRY A. WAXMAN, California, Chairman

TOM LANTOS, California

EDOLPHUS TOWNS, New York

PAUL E. KANJORSKI, Pennsylvania

CAROLYN B. MALONEY, New York

ELIJAH E. CUMMINGS, Maryland

DENNIS J. KUCINICH, Ohio

DANNY K. DAVIS, Illinois

JOHN F. TIERNEY, Massachusetts

WM. LACY CLAY, Missouri

DIANE E. WATSON, California

STEPHEN F. LYNCH, Massachusetts

BRIAN HIGGINS, New York

JOHN A. YARMUTH, Kentucky

BRUCE L. BRALEY, Iowa

ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON, District of

Columbia

BETTY MCCOLLUM, Minnesota

JIM COOPER, Tennessee

CHRIS VAN HOLLEN, Maryland

PAUL W. HODES, New Hampshire

CHRISTOPHER S. MURPHY, Connecticut

JOHN P. SARBANES, Maryland

PETER WELCH, Vermont

TOM DAVIS, Virginia

DAN BURTON, Indiana

CHRISTOPHER SHAYS, Connecticut

JOHN M. MCHUGH, New York

JOHN L. MICA, Florida

MARK E. SOUDER, Indiana

TODD RUSSELL PLATTS, Pennsylvania

CHRIS CANNON, Utah

JOHN J. DUNCAN, JR., Tennessee

MICHAEL R. TURNER, Ohio

DARRELL E. ISSA, California

KENNY MARCHANT, Texas

LYNN A. WESTMORELAND, Georgia

PATRICK T. MCHENRY, North Carolina

VIRGINIA FOXX, North Carolina

BRIAN P. BILBRAY, California

BILL SALI, Idaho

——— ———

PHIL SCHILIRO, Chief of Staff

PHIL BARNETT, Staff Director

EARLEY GREEN, Chief Clerk

DAVID MARIN, Minority Staff Director

SUBCOMMITTEE ON FEDERAL WORKFORCE, POSTAL SERVICE, AND THE DISTRICT OF

COLUMBIA

DANNY K. DAVIS, Illinois

ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON, District of

Columbia

JOHN P. SARBANES, Maryland

ELIJAH E. CUMMINGS, Maryland

DENNIS J. KUCINICH, Ohio, Chairman

WM. LACY CLAY, Missouri

STEPHEN F. LYNCH, Massachusetts

KENNY MARCHANT, Texas

JOHN M. MCHUGH, NEW YORK

JOHN L. MICA, Florida

DARRELL E. ISSA, California

——— ———

TANIA SHAND, Staff Director

(III)

C O N T E N T S

Page

Hearing held on March 22, 2007 ............................................................................ 1

Text of H.R. 1124 ..................................................................................................... 3

Statement of:

Fenty, Adrian M., Mayor, District of Columbia ............................................. 6

Harrison, Deborah, vice president, government affairs, Marriott International, Inc., corporate board member of the District of Columbia

College Access Program; and Argelia Rodriguez, president and CEO,

District of Columbia College Access Program ............................................ 18

Harrison, Deborah ..................................................................................... 18

Rodriguez, Argelia ..................................................................................... 27

O’Leary, Frazier, teacher and coach, Cardozo Senior High School;

Emyrtle Bennett, guidance director, Woodrow Wilson Senior High

School; Alice M. Boone, management analyst, National Science Foundation, parent of D.C. TAG student, Norfolk State University; and Randa

Chappin, executive assistant, the Heart Rhythm Society, D.C. TAG

recipient, graduate, American University ................................................... 38

Bennett, Emyrtle ....................................................................................... 43

Boone, Alice M. .......................................................................................... 60

Chappin, Randa ......................................................................................... 63

O’Leary, Frazier ........................................................................................ 38

Letters, statements, etc., submitted for the record by:

Bennett, Emyrtle, guidance director, Woodrow Wilson Senior High

School, prepared statement of ...................................................................... 46

Boone, Alice M., management analyst, National Science Foundation, parent of D.C. TAG student, Norfolk State University, prepared statement

of ..................................................................................................................... 62

Chappin, Randa, executive assistant, the Heart Rhythm Society, D.C.

TAG recipient, graduate, American University, prepared statement of .. 65

Cummings, Hon. Elijah E., a Representative in Congress from the State

of Maryland, prepared statement of ............................................................ 73

Fenty, Adrian M., Mayor, District of Columbia, prepared statement of ...... 9

Harrison, Deborah, vice president, government affairs, Marriott International, Inc., corporate board member of the District of Columbia

College Access Program, prepared statement of ........................................ 21

Lynch, Hon. Stephen F., a Representative in Congress from the State

of Massachusetts, prepared statement of ................................................... 56

Marchant, Hon. Kenny, a Representative in Congress from the State

of Texas, prepared statement of .................................................................. 36

O’Leary, Frazier, teacher and coach, Cardozo Senior High School, prepared statement of ........................................................................................ 41

Rodriguez, Argelia, president and CEO, District of Columbia College Access Program, prepared statement of .......................................................... 30

(1)

THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA TUITION

ACCESS GRANT PROGRAM

THURSDAY, MARCH 22, 2007

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,

SUBCOMMITTEE ON FEDERAL WORKFORCE, POSTAL

SERVICE, AND THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA,

COMMITTEE ON OVERSIGHT AND GOVERNMENT REFORM,

Washington, DC.

The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 2:08 p.m. in room

2247, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Danny K. Davis (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding.

Present: Representatives Davis of Illinois, Norton, Sarbanes,

Kucinich, Lynch, Marchant, and Davis of Virginia (ex officio).

Staff present: Tania Shand, staff director; Caleb Gilchrist, professional staff member; Cecelia Morton, clerk; and Howie Denis, Victoria Proctor, and Alex Cooper, minority professional staff members.

Mr. DAVIS OF ILLINOIS. The subcommittee will come to order.

First of all, let me welcome Ranking Member Marchant, other

members of the subcommittee here, and witnesses, all of those in

attendance. You will note that some members are not here, and

you will note especially that Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton is

not present at the moment, but, of course, the reason she is not

present is because she is on the House floor as we speak managing

the District of Columbia voting rights bill. Hopefully, she will be

able to join us.

Of course, we may very well have votes and these kind of things

that will disrupt our activity. But out of respect for the time and

schedules of some of our distinguished witnesses, we wanted to

make sure that we did not delay this hearing and that we would

try to stick as close to the schedule as possible.

Welcome to the Federal Workforce, Postal Service, and the District of Columbia Subcommittee hearing on the District of Columbia Tuition Access Grant, D.C. TAG, program.

Hearing no objection, the Chair, ranking member, and subcommittee members will each have 5 minutes to make opening

statements, and all Members will have 3 days to submit statements for the record.

I will proceed with an opening statement.

Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the first hearing of the Subcommittee on the Federal Workforce, Postal Service,

and District of Columbia, which we will hold on District-related

matters.

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I am pleased to have joined Ranking Member Tom Davis and

Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton in sponsoring H.R. 1124, a bill to

extend the District of Columbia College Access Act of 1999. The

act, H.R. 1124, reauthorizes funding for the District of Columbia

tuition assistance grant, the D.C. TAG program, which has helped

to promote higher education for high school graduates in the District of Columbia.

D.C. TAG provides grants for District high school students to attend public colleges and universities nationwide at in-state tuition

rates. Additionally—and this is a very important provision of the

bill—it provides smaller grants for District students to attend private institutions in the D.C. metropolitan area and to historically

black colleges and universities [HBCUs], nationwide.

The impact of this legislation on the community and in the lives

of the students who receive the grant cannot be overstated. D.C.

TAG reaches students in communities where there is little hope to

being able to attend and afford a college education. This is particularly true for many of the students that participate in D.C. TAG.

Of the students that participate in the program, 58 percent come

from very low-income households. The percentage of males participating in the program increased from 8 percent in 2001 to 41 percent in 2006. That bodes well for black males, who are statistically

more likely to end up in the criminal justice system than matriculating at a college or university.

Furthermore, students who participate in the program are attending educational institutions that are known to nurture students of color. Five of the top 10 private schools that these students

attend are HBCUs: Hampton University, Morehouse College, Virginia Union University, St. Augustine’s College, and Bennett College.

While students from all races participate in the program and attend over 270 institutions in 47 States, including nationally recognized public institutions like the University of Michigan at Ann

Arbor, the University of Illinois, the University of California-Berkeley, and the Ohio State University, it is a program that serves a

community that is starving for attention and resources—students

of color from low-income households and HBCUs.

Again I commend Representatives Davis and Norton for establishing this program, and I look forward to hearing firsthand how

D.C. TAG has impacted students, recipients, their parents, and

outlook on life.

I would now like to ask Representative Sarbanes from Maryland

if he has any comments.

[The text of H.R. 1124 follows:]

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Mr. SARBANES. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

This is actually my first opportunity to participate in a hearing

of this subcommittee, so I am glad to be here. I am 9 weeks into

this new job.

Welcome, Mayor Fenty.

A couple of things. First of all, it is District of Columbia Day on

the Hill, for the reasons that our chairman indicated. I, for one,

and I know he and others, many in this Congress are looking forward for the District of Columbia to have a voting representation

in Congress that is so well deserved and to allow an incredible advocate like Eleanor Holmes Norton to take her advocacy just one

level higher. As effective as she has been without this right, I can’t

even imagine what is going to happen when she gets it. We all look

forward to that.

This program, the D.C. TAG program and the underlying legislation that we are seeking to reauthorize, is just absolutely critical

for young people in the District of Columbia who are trying to

make their way forward. It reminds me of a documentary that I

saw a couple years back which was focusing on a dropout recovery

program in the District of Columbia.

It focused on one family where, in the generation of cousins and

brothers in that extended family of about 10 or 12 young men, all

of whom sadly had dropped out of high school, there was one young

man who came back in through the recovery program and was

moving his life forward and stood ready to take advantage of a college opportunity that was there. At the last minute, the funding for

that fell through, and when it fell through he fell through the

cracks again and ended up dropping out.

What was so poignant about that documentary was that they

interviewed one of his cousins who had long since given up hope

that he would ever have this opportunity himself, and had sort of

vicariously put all of his hopes and dreams into this cousin of his,

and his disappointment was palpable. I remember him saying—I

will never forget—he said it would have been enough for me in my

lifetime in my life if my cousin had this opportunity. It makes you

stop and think, when young people’s aspirations are so compromised that they can’t even imagine for themselves opportunity

and need to project it on to others.

This program offers tremendous opportunities to young people in

the District of Columbia. It doesn’t occur to most folks that the District of Columbia doesn’t have its own State university system, and

therefore can’t offer that kind of ‘‘in-State’’ tuition opportunity that

others have, and so to have a mechanism in place that allows families and students to take advantage of the higher education opportunity is critical.

I am very pleased to be here and be part of the hearing today

and look forward to the reauthorization of this important legislation and look forward to hearing your testimony, Mr. Fenty.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. DAVIS OF ILLINOIS. Thank you very much.

If there are other witnesses present, would you come and take

those front seats up there, so that when we get ready to swear people in we can swear everybody in at the same time.

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We will now proceed to hear testimony from the witnesses. Of

course, should other Members come in, we would provide them opportunity to make opening statements if they so desire.

Our first witness is going to be the Honorable Adrian M. Fenty,

who won the Democratic nomination for D.C. Mayor on September

12, 2006. He received 57 percent of the vote and won every precinct

in the city. He served two terms as a councilman representing

ward 4. He waged a vigorous campaign, in which he emphasized

that government must serve the priorities of its people. He unveiled his own proposal, the District of Columbia Education Reform

Amendment Act of 2007, in an effort to improve the D.C. educational system.

We will go ahead and swear in all the witnesses who are present,

and so if you would all stand.

[Witnesses sworn.]

Mr. DAVIS OF ILLINOIS. The record will show that each witness

answered in the affirmative. Thank you very much. You may be

seated.

Please know that your entire statements will be entered into the

record. Of course, we use these lights around here. they are kind

of like stop, go, get ready to stop, and all those kind of things. But

the green light indicates that you have 5 minutes in which to summarize your statement. The yellow light means that your time is

running down and that you have 1 minute remaining, and, of

course, the red light means that your time has expired.

We will now proceed and hear testimony from the Honorable

Mayor of the city of Washington, DC, Mayor Fenty.

Mr. Mayor, please proceed.

STATEMENT OF ADRIAN M. FENTY, MAYOR, DISTRICT OF

COLUMBIA

Mayor FENTY. Thank you very much. I am glad to be here on

District of Columbia Day. No two better issues we could be discussing here on the Hill than voting rights and education, and we

thank both of you for your support on voting rights, as well.

Mr. Chairman and members of the Subcommittee on the Federal

Workforce, Postal Service, and the District of Columbia, good afternoon. My name is Adrian M. Fenty, and I am the fifth elected

Mayor of the District of Columbia. I want to thank you for calling

this important hearing and for the opportunity to testify today.

I also want to acknowledge and thank our Delegate Eleanor

Holmes Norton for her tireless dedication to the constituents that

we both share.

I am here today to express my support for the congressional reauthorization of the District of Columbia Tuition Assistant Grant

Program, or D.C. TAG. This program deserves the continued support of Congress for two reasons: one, because we need it; and, two,

because it works.

A little bit about the program. Simply put, D.C. TAG is a program that helps high school graduates in the District of Columbia

go to college. It helps them go to college with the same options as

high school graduates from the 50 United States. In the 50 States,

students have the option of multiple universities and colleges on

multiple campuses. For example, neighboring Maryland has 14 4-

7

year public university campuses and 16 community colleges. That

is about one campus for every 180,000 residents. In the District of

Columbia we have just one campus, the University of the District

of Columbia, for all 572,000 residents.

State colleges and universities are well known for providing a

quality education at an affordable price. That price is especially affordable for students who go to school in their home States. The

D.C. Tuition Assistance Grants Program puts higher education

within reach by bridging the gap between in-State and out of State

tuition at a State university. It provides up to $10,000 per academic year, up to a lifetime maximum of $50,000, for District residents who have a high school diploma and start college by the age

of 24.

Other options are up to a $2,500 per academic year to bridge the

gap between in-State and out of State tuition at a community college, or up to $2,500 per academic year to attend a private, historically black college or university anywhere in the Nation, or a private university in the District of Columbia metropolitan area.

In 1999, Congress passed D.C. TAG at the urging of our own Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton. To date, including the current school

year, the program has disbursed $154 million. The D.C. TAG Program started in school year 2000–2001. Since that time, more than

11,000 young people have taken advantage of our Government’s

offer for help with their tuition bills.

Looking at the statistics from another angle, in the years since

the program began, the number of District of Columbia public

school students going to college has doubled. I want to say that one

more time. The number of students going to college from our public

schools has doubled. That is a phenomenal achievement for a program that is only in its 7th year.

D.C. TAG has put our college enrollment in line with the national average, but numbers, alone, don’t tell the story of our program’s success. This is one of those occasions where my constituents tell their own stories far better than I ever could. I will share

with you the words of Wezlynn Davis, whose daughter Niya graduated from North Carolina Central University last year.

Ms. Davis writes, ‘‘We, the Davis family, have been truly blessed

by the District of Columbia Tuition Assistance Program. I don’t

know what we would have done without it. I hope that the program

continues in the future and the process won’t change much, because I have another youngster who will be attending college. He

wants to be a culinary chef, and has his mind set on it. Thank you

for all you and others are doing to make sure our black children

succeed,’’ writes Ms. Davis. ‘‘It gives them self worth and a sense

of pride knowing that they can afford to attend college. I know my

daughter is happy. She graduated on May 6, 2006, the first one of

my children to do that. I am ecstatic,’’ she concludes.

Niya Davis is now an administrative assistant at Georgetown

University Hospital. Hers is just one of the D.C. TAG Program’s

success stories. I ask you to imagine 11,000 success stories, with

more yet to come.

In conclusion, the District of Columbia, like other governments

across the country, has a public policy of encouraging as many of

its young people as possible to go to college. The average male colVerDate 11-MAY-2000 15:52 Sep 20, 2007 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00011 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 C:\DOCS\37262.TXT HGOVREF1 PsN: HGOVREF1
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lege graduate earns 70 percent more than a male high school graduate in the United States, and the average female graduate earns

almost 80 percent more. We need to make these opportunities

available to anyone who wants them, regardless of income.

The D.C. Tuition Assistance Program creates more opportunities

for District of Columbia students to go to college. Of those in the

program, just like Niya Davis, 38 percent are the first in their family to do so. That number is shrinking as we enroll younger siblings

in D.C. TAG, and we are hoping 1 day to get it to zero.

We are changing a way of life for an entire generation of young

people, and I would like to call upon you, Chairman Davis, and

your colleagues to reauthorize D.C. TAG once again.

Thank you for the opportunity to testify today. I look forward to

answering any questions.

[The prepared statement of Mayor Fenty follows:]

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Mr. DAVIS OF ILLINOIS. Thank you very much, Mr. Mayor. We

will proceed. We are delighted that you do have time for a few

questions.

I have never been a mayor, but I have been a member of a city

council and I have some awareness of how busy a mayor’s schedule

must be in terms of trying to get around to all the pot holes and

all of the other things that exist and make sure the trees are

trimmed.

Mayor FENTY. I had a lot of hair when I was elected, Mr. Chair.

Mr. DAVIS OF ILLINOIS. So I understand what it is like. But let

me begin the questioning process.

It is hard for me to imagine that any students would not want

to take advantage of the program, but can you share with us what

the District is doing and plans to do to try and make sure that

there is maximum participation on the part of eligible students?

Mayor FENTY. Well, I think we have a situation that exists

where we are spending the lion’s share of the dollars appropriated,

so I think we have shown that if money is put there we will market

the program and get students to participate, but I think the District of Columbia is fully prepared if this is reauthorized to make

sure that even more young people use the program. Our guidance

counselors are doing a better job every year getting people involved.

My office, through our State education officer, Debra Gist, works

in collaboration with those counselors. As we go forward, we would

love to amend and give you a real detailed plan that shows you exactly everything that we are doing, but we are very sufficient and

very confident that the number of people in the system can not

only use the dollars, but will grow each year.

Mr. DAVIS OF ILLINOIS. The Government Accountability Office

did a study back in 2005, and they reported that 35 percent or 35.6

percent of the 3,094 students receiving D.C. TAG funds failed to

adequately demonstrate their eligibility. What steps have been

taken since the release of this study or this report to verify the eligibility of individuals for the program?

Mayor FENTY. Well, in short, Mr. Chair, our State Education Office, and I am joined by our director, our State Education Officer

Debra Gist, on my left, has made sure that we have made the

changes that we thought were necessary. Many of those problems

I think were surrounding ‘‘applicants who had unusual circumstances,’’ and the eligibility of students with unusual circumstances is now documented through the professional judgment

form, which has been approved and signed by the Higher Education Financial Services director.

We think that we have not only been able to address that, but

three other major findings in the GAO audit. A lot of the problems

that were reviewed in the GAO audit study stem from the first couple of years of the program, and it is running 100 percent more

smoothly now.

Mr. DAVIS OF ILLINOIS. And my last question, can you think of

anything that we, as Members of Congress, might be able to do to

improve or make even more effective this very worthwhile program?

16

Mayor FENTY. Well, I think in the short term a reauthorization

puts us on sound footing. We believe that the amount that is being

discussed for fiscal year 2008 is an appropriate amount. I don’t

think there is any question, though, if we want to keep the program as strong as it is right now, in future years there will have

to be some bump up. Tuition is going up at the colleges.

More people are enrolling, as you said, as we market this to more

people, and more students, which we clearly will do. What will happen is, if we keep it at that $35 million level, less people will be

able to use the program. So in the short term we think a reauthorization will suffice, and we think we have ironed out many of the

details, but in the long term we will have to slowly increase it to

be able to keep the same number of people in the program.

Mr. DAVIS OF ILLINOIS. Thank you very much, Mr. Mayor.

Now we will turn to Representative Sarbanes, if he has any

questions.

Mr. SARBANES. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Just a couple of quick questions, and they are sort of related to

what you already said. Do you have a sense of whether there is

pent-up demand for the program now among high school students

that, with sufficient funding, could be accommodated, or is there

sort of this interplay with raising awareness first before the pipeline kind of fills to the max?

Mayor FENTY. I get the sense that there probably is some ability

to put more people in, in the short term, but there is absolutely an

ability to put more people in the long term. That is why I said to

the Chair that reauthorization in the current fiscal year at the current dollars that are discussed for fiscal year 2008 would be appropriate, but that as we go forward, we will be able to get more people involved.

One of the things that we should look at is, as in a place like

the University of Virginia, for example, the delta between what the

in-State tuition is and the $10,000 cap per year is still about

$6,000, so a student has to pay that $6,000 on top of the $10,000

grant. That in the District of Columbia, like in any urban place,

could make UVA or any university that has a similar delta between in-State and out of State tuition unaffordable for a young

person. So I think that is kind of what we may want to address

in the future years, as well as I think there is no question we can

increase the numbers.

One of the things we did today was announce that Bill and

Melinda Gates have put $112 million into sending more kids from

the District of Columbia to college. Well, those young people very

likely are going to want to go to in-State colleges also. So we think

that we can increase the numbers into the future.

Mr. SARBANES. I thank you for that, because it is careful when

we talk about the resource question to not see it simply in terms

of being able to enhance numbers, because if we can’t cover the

differential——

Mayor FENTY. That is right.

Mr. SARBANES [continuing]. And, in fact, it is not going to get

those numbers coming in.

Has there been any evidence that the existence of the program

has—I mean, one can see where graduates would step in the proVerDate 11-MAY-2000 15:52 Sep 20, 2007 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00020 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 C:\DOCS\37262.TXT HGOVREF1 PsN: HGOVREF1
17

gram like that. Is there any evidence that it has discouraged dropouts in some cases because a student can see as they are looking

out 2 or 3 years down the road, here is an opportunity that I

thought maybe I didn’t have, and it helps to keep them on track

and in school? Is there anecdotal or statistical evidence of that?

Mayor FENTY. We probably could provide you a list of those types

of stories, but suffice it to say that the simple fact that we are

sending so many first-time students that are the first in their families to graduate I think is almost anecdotal in itself that we have

some young people who otherwise would not have gone to college.

Since the program has started here in Congress, we have doubled

the number of kids going to college in the District of Columbia.

That is a statistic that is directly tied to your continued support

of the program.

I think there are other benefits, as well. Although you represent

Maryland, we are not trying to send a whole lot of constituents

your way if we don’t have to.

Mr. SARBANES. I understand.

Mayor FENTY. And people will flee the District of Columbia if

they don’t have the same type of resources available. This puts us

on parity, and I think more people have stayed in the city because

of it, which is healthy for all of us, because we want the District

of Columbia to succeed for the region.

Mr. SARBANES. Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, I note that, even though the rationale for establishing this program is based on peculiar and sort of exceptional

characteristics of the District of Columbia, unwittingly perhaps it

can serve in some respects as a model for what we should be doing

more of with respect to offering opportunity for higher education in

this country across the country in terms of the kinds of assistance

that ought to be offered there to help people bridge this gap, because the cost of higher education is fast becoming a great separator in the society at large. So the effectiveness of a program like

this, the evidence that it is working smoothly, statistics on how it

is allowing young people to make that journey forward I think is

very helpful to that larger discussion on higher education across

the country.

Thank you.

Mr. DAVIS OF ILLINOIS. I want to thank you so much, Representative Sarbanes, for your comments.

Mr. Mayor, I want to congratulate you and the city of Washington, DC, on the Bill and Linda Gates Foundation grant. I think

that should go a long way. And I will also share with you that I

was able to visit earlier today with the publisher of the Washington

Post who spoke very favorably about this program as one of the

bright signs of what is taking place in the District of Columbia.

I will end my comments. Malcolm X said that education is our

passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare

today. I think that this certainly will go a long way toward helping

to prepare young people, so we thank you for your testimony.

Mayor FENTY. Thank you.

Mr. DAVIS OF ILLINOIS. We appreciate your being here.

Mayor FENTY. Thank you. If you have any followup questions, we

will definitely get you information. We can’t thank both of you

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enough for your support for this program and for the District of Columbia, in general. Thank you.

Mr. DAVIS OF ILLINOIS. Thank you.

We will now proceed with our additional witnesses. Today we

have two panels. It may very well make sense. Do we have any additional witnesses who came and didn’t come up to the front? If so,

then we would ask you to just come and take a seat up here in

these seats that are reserved for witnesses.

We will go then to our second panel. Our second panel: Ms. Deborah Marriott Harrison and Argelia Rodriguez. Ms. Harrison is the

vice president of Government Affairs for Marriott International,

Inc. She is a member of the D.C. College Access Program, called

D.C. CAP Board. The D.C. CAP Board consists of 17 corporations

and foundations that raise funds to help enable District public high

school students to enter and graduate from college.

Welcome, and thank you very much.

Ms. Rodriguez is the president and CEO of D.C. CAP. She is responsible for operating 18 college information centers in public

schools around the city, administering over $2.5 million in scholarship funds each year, and providing college and financial counseling to more than 16,000 high school and college students and their

parents.

We will begin with Ms. Harrison.

STATEMENTS OF DEBORAH HARRISON, VICE PRESIDENT,

GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS, MARRIOTT INTERNATIONAL, INC.,

CORPORATE BOARD MEMBER OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA COLLEGE ACCESS PROGRAM; AND ARGELIA

RODRIGUEZ, PRESIDENT AND CEO, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

COLLEGE ACCESS PROGRAM

STATEMENT OF DEBORAH HARRISON

Ms. HARRISON. Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman and subcommittee

members. It is an honor for me to be here today before your subcommittee to express my strong support and that of the entire D.C.

CAP Board for the reauthorization of the D.C. College Access Act.

In 1999 the chairman and chief executive officers of Mobil Corp.,

Lockheed Martin, Fannie Mae, Marriott, and the Washington Post

embarked on an ambitious program to substantially increase the

number of public high school students in the District of Columbia

who gain admission to college and remain there throughout graduation. I would like to stress the importance of the graduation part.

We have a model program of retention. There are others that want

to copy this program. We have higher than the national average of

students actually graduating from college, which is very important

to us.

These CEOs went out into the business community and raised

$30 million, which allowed the D.C. College Access Program to be

able to be launched, but we cannot do this without assistance from

the Federal Government, without the assistance of the D.C. TAG

program and the D.C. Access Program.

Mr. Fenty and you all have described the program very well, and

so I would like to reiterate the statistic that since D.C. CAP has

been in existence the last 7 years the number of students has risen

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from 30 percent to 60 percent of those who go to college and graduate, but there is still a lot more work to be done. Only 9 percent

of all entering freshmen into the 9th grade actually go to college

and graduate from college from the District of Columbia, so there

is a lot of work to be done.

I would like to digress from the written statement, if I may, and

tell you a personal story of how I have been involved with some

real-life students and tell you how this directly impacts real-life

people.

I have been involved on more than 10 boards, most of them nonprofits, and this has been the most rewarding association or organization that I have ever been able to be with, because I have seen

how it makes a difference in people’s lives. I am also involved with

our church youth group, where we have over 200 high school students that we organize in Montgomery County and in the District

of Columbia.

Two years ago one of my girls that I have become close to named

Dominee wanted to go to college. She went to her D.C. CAP advisor, and that is part of the program that makes this so special is

each high school has a D.C. CAP counseling center in the schools.

I would like to say that the guidance counseling offices in the high

schools are empty, but the D.C. CAP offices are bustling and are

very active and have a lot of energy.

She approached her counselor. Her counselor helped her navigate

through the system of applying to many colleges and also helped

her gain scholarships and financial rewards through the system.

She got her D.C. CAP scholarship, her TAG scholarship, and many

others, and was able to garner $22,000 so that she could go to

school.

Two years ago she was accepted to the University of Pennsylvania, the Altoona campus. I threw my arms around her and gave

her a hug and said, this is great, you are going to college. This is

wonderful. She said, I am not going. I said, there is no choice. You

are going. Why do you not want to go?

She said that she comes from what I would call a typical innercity family where her mother disappeared when she was about 3

years old. Her father has been in prison most of her life and is a

drug addict. She and her mentally retarded sister were raised by

her grandmother. She was worried about who would take care of

her grandmother and her sister. She was worried about the extra

$2,000 she would have to raise in order to go to college. She had

no support or encouragement from home to go. She was afraid to

go to college because she didn’t feel she had been adequately prepared for the rigors of university life, and she was the first in her

family to ever go to college.

I took her and two of her friends up to the university campus

and we had a tour. They showed her the dorms where she would

stay. She met her teachers. She met other students. I am happy

to say that she and her two friends are now finishing their sophomore year at Penn State and that she is doing very well. She is

breaking the cycle in her family of poverty and of self-defeat.

I would like to strongly, strongly encourage and recommend a 5-

year reauthorization of the D.C. College Access Act and full funding of the D.C. Tuition Assistance Grant Program. I can assure you

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that this program does affect real people and real lives and gets

them out of the cycle of self-defeat and poverty.

I am very proud to be a member of this, and I would be happy

to take any questions that I can answer.

[The prepared statement of Ms. Harrison follows:]

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Mr. DAVIS OF ILLINOIS. Thank you very much, Ms. Harrison. We

appreciate your comments and certainly you being here with us

today.

We will now go to Ms. Rodriguez. You may proceed.

STATEMENT OF ARGELIA RODRIGUEZ

Ms. RODRIGUEZ. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and members of the

committee. I appreciate this opportunity to speak to you today.

With the passage of the D.C. College Access Act of 1999 the same

year our privately funded D.C. College Access Program was founded by major Washington area companies and foundations, our

unique public-private partnership has had extraordinary results. In

the 7-years since the passage of the D.C. College Access Act and

the founding of D.C. CAP, our research suggests that now twice as

many D.C. public high school students go on to college, and three

times as many graduate from college within 5 years.

These figures, while remarkable in any context, are all the more

so because the children of the D.C. public schools come in overwhelmingly large numbers from low-income, single parent, minority households, and are almost always the first in their families to

attend college.

D.C. CAP is unique among the Nation’s college access programs

in that every D.C. public high school student is eligible for its services, regardless of academic achievement, grade point average, family income, ethnicity, special education eligibility, delinquency, or

criminal history. While many other such programs establish criteria that disqualifies some students from participation, the principal operating philosophy of D.C. CAP is that every high school

student has the right to an opportunity to improve his or her quality of life through a college education.

Counseling begins with ninth grade students, informing them

that college is a possibility, helping them understand the economic

and other benefits of college education. Later in their high school

careers students are assisted with standardized achievement test

preparation and administration, college selections, admissions applications, and financial aid strategies.

Since the inception of D.C. CAP, its high school counseling centers have provided thousands of individual and group counseling

sessions, as well as financial aid seminars for students and their

families, administration of SAT and ACT exams, and assistance

with college educations, enrollment, and registration.

Once accepted in an accredited 2-year or 4-year college or university or vocational school, students from the District of Columbia are

eligible for D.C. CAP’s last dollar awards of up to $2,000 a year for

up to 5 years. Not every student receives the last dollar award, but

it is based on financial need rather than academic performance.

After all other available public and private financial assistance has

been identified and obtained, students still needing more assistance

can qualify for last dollar awards.

Since its inception through the 2005–2006 academic year, D.C.

CAP will have awarded more than 5,300 last dollar awards totaling

approximately $2 million.

A second unique feature of the D.C. College Access Program is

its continued support of students for up to 5 years of college

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through their college careers. This support is not confined to financial assistance, but it also includes mentoring, academic and administrative support, a toll-free hot line, on-campus visits by counselors, regular financial aid and scholarship correspondence, college

tours, and D.C. CAP campus college representatives.

In its 8th year of operation, the D.C. College Access Program currently funds full-time counselors serving nearly 12,000 students in

18 D.C. public high schools.

D.C. CAP has provided college retention services to over 2,000

students attending over 600 universities and colleges around the

country, and is currently providing $2.5 million annually in last

dollar award scholarships to approximately 1,200 students attending 230 colleges and universities.

A total of 8,400 D.C. public school students have been admitted

to college since the inception of D.C. CAP, and nearly 1,000 have

already graduated.

With the help of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the

D.C. College Success Foundation, we are now prepared to extend

our services to the charter schools, where more than a quarter of

D.C. students are now enrolled. We expect the universe of collegebound students from the District of Columbia to grow even larger

in the years ahead.

Because of this important act, these achievements simply would

not have been possible without the passage of the legislation.

Under the unique circumstances of the District of Columbia, there

is no State university system available for D.C. students, no choice

of publicly financed colleges and universities beyond the University

of the District of Columbia. These circumstances lead to the anomaly of D.C. students paying three times as much tuition as Virginia

students were required to pay to attend the same Virginia college

taking the D.C. subway line.

With the enactment of the D.C. College Access Act of 1999, Congress remedied this inequity and created a virtual State university

system that dramatically expanded the higher education choices of

students from the District of Columbia. From the beginning, the

legislation has enjoyed broad bipartisan support here in Congress.

Both the Clinton and Bush administrations have recommended full

funding of the D.C. Tuition Assistance Grant, despite significant

restraints on domestic spending. Congress has appropriated the

full amount of administration requests every year, $35.2 million in

fiscal year 2006, and has routinely reauthorized the program.

Because of this legislation, because of you, D.C. students now

have not only a chance but a choice in higher education, and they

have made the most of it. Of D.C. college students, 40 percent are

graduating within 5 years—still below the national average of 52

percent, but above the 38 percent average for African Americans

throughout the country. We expect further improvement in this

D.C. graduation to as much as 44 percent within the next year.

Without the Federal tuition contribution authorized by the D.C.

College Access Act, most of these students would not only not graduate from college, they would have never gone to college in the first

place. The financial barrier would have simply been too high, the

dream of college education too far to reach.

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You should be proud of supporting a Federal program that actually works, and it works very well. The D.C. College Access Act is

working exactly as it was intended to work, and it is achieving results no one would have dared predict 7 years ago.

We are grateful for your support and we are hopeful we can

count on it in the future.

Thank you very much.

[The prepared statement of Ms. Rodriguez follows:]

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Mr. DAVIS OF ILLINOIS. Thank you very much for your comments.

We have been joined by the ranking member of this subcommittee, Representative Marchant, and I will defer to him at this moment for any comments that he might want to make and any questions he might have for the witnesses.

Mr. MARCHANT. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

For the sake of time, I will submit my opening statement for the

record and apologize. The floor voting schedule got very confused

in the last 30 minutes, so I was on the floor expecting to be voting.

I apologize for my tardiness.

Mr. Chairman, I will submit this for the record.

I would just say that it is a great privilege to me to hear this

testimony from you today, both of you ladies, and that it looks to

me like this program is working very well. I am very open to helping with the reauthorization of it.

[The prepared statement of Hon. Kenny Marchant follows:]

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Ms. HARRISON. Thank you.

Ms. RODRIGUEZ. Thank you.

Mr. DAVIS OF ILLINOIS. Thank you very much.

I will ask representative Sarbanes if he has any questions.

Mr. SARBANES. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

A quick question. Before, was the College Access Program that

was pulled together in 1999—I take it that is when it was

launched?

Ms. RODRIGUEZ. Yes.

Mr. SARBANES. Was it pulled together in response to the TAG opportunity; is that right?

Ms. RODRIGUEZ. In collaboration.

Mr. SARBANES. In collaboration with it.

Ms. RODRIGUEZ. Collaboration.

Mr. SARBANES. OK. So what I was curious about is before TAG

what was the level of commitment or involvement by similar actors

with respect to moving young people into higher education from the

District of Columbia.

Ms. RODRIGUEZ. Well, I think that before 1999 there were many

corporations and foundations who were acting in good faith but individually. I think in 1999 really the stars aligned. The corporations, the foundations, the city, with the enactment of the act everything came together and we mobilized around this specific issue.

And, as you know, there is strength in numbers, and I think that

is what has made all the difference in the world.

Mr. SARBANES. I worked in Baltimore for about 8 years in education. There are a number of programs, college-bound programs

that exist there. I know that the business community and private

sector is very careful about the kind of commitments they make in

public education, because they want to make sure that they are

leveraging as much as they can. I think that what we see here is

the opportunity where the public side of this partnership was really

what made it appealing to the private sector.

Again, I think that there is a lesson in this that can be applied

much more widely than with respect to the District of Columbia in

terms of the public sector stepping in, particularly with respect to

cost, and getting part of the way, a substantial part of the way

down the road in terms of making an opportunity available and affordable to a young person so that then there is an incentive for

the private sector to step in and do that last dollar grant, or whatever it might be.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. DAVIS OF ILLINOIS. I am going to forego any questions. I

want to thank both of you ladies for your testimony. We are going

to be having votes later on and we need to try to get as many of

the witnesses in as we can before votes. I really want to thank you

for your testimony. We appreciate it. Thank you very much.

Ms. HARRISON. Thanks.

Ms. RODRIGUEZ. Thank you.

Mr. DAVIS OF ILLINOIS. I am going to ask if panel three would

come: Frazier O’Leary, Jr.; Dr. Emyrtle Bennett; Alice M. Boone;

and Randa Chappin.

Let me just read the introductions.

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Frazier O’Leary, Jr., is a teacher and coach at Cardozo High

School. He is a consultant for the College Board in English Language and Literature, Virtual Teams, and Pre-AP. He has encouraged and advised hundreds of students about the value and importance of participating in D.C. TAG.

Dr. Bennett is the head guidance counselor for Wilson High

School. She is responsible for the academic, social, and developmental needs of Wilson students. She facilitates and manages the

college/work/career process of the student population and has a son

who recently finished law school and was a recipient of D.C. TAG.

Alice Boone is a management analyst to the associate inspector

general for investigations at the National Science Foundation. She

is a single mother with three children. She has one child who is

a recipient of D.C. TAG.

And Randa Chappin is a single mother who graduated from the

American University with a B.A. degree in communications and

urban development in May 2005. She is the executive assistant to

the vice president of communications and marketing at the Heart

Rhythm Society and was a recipient of D.C. TAG.

It is the custom, of course, that we swear in all witnesses. I think

we have one witness who was not sworn in with the rest, or two,

Ms. Boone and Ms. Chappin.

[Witnesses sworn.]

Mr. DAVIS OF ILLINOIS. The record will show that each witness

answered in the affirmative.

Please know that your entire statements will be entered into the

record. We would ask that you summarize your testimony in 5-

minute statements. The green light will come on, and it just simply

means that you have 5 minutes. When it gets down to sort of a yellow or colored-looking light, then that means that you have 1

minute and you are expected to begin to kind of wrap up your testimony. Of course, the red light means the same thing that it does

out on the street, and that is stop.

We thank you all so much for being here. We will begin with Mr.

O’Leary.

STATEMENTS OF FRAZIER O’LEARY, TEACHER AND COACH,

CARDOZO SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL; EMYRTLE BENNETT, GUIDANCE DIRECTOR, WOODROW WILSON SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL;

ALICE M. BOONE, MANAGEMENT ANALYST, NATIONAL

SCIENCE FOUNDATION, PARENT OF D.C. TAG STUDENT,

NORFOLK STATE UNIVERSITY; AND RANDA CHAPPIN, EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT, THE HEART RHYTHM SOCIETY, D.C. TAG

RECIPIENT, GRADUATE, AMERICAN UNIVERSITY

STATEMENT OF FRAZIER O’LEARY

Mr. O’LEARY. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Good afternoon, ladies

and gentlemen.

My name is Frazier O’Leary, and I have been teaching English

in the D.C. public schools for 37 years, the last 30 at Cardozo High

School in northwest Washington.

Mr. DAVIS OF ILLINOIS. Congratulations.

Mr. O’LEARY. Thank you very much.

Mr. DAVIS OF ILLINOIS. Thirty-seven years.

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Mr. O’LEARY. It has been 37 years of fun.

One of my primary goals as an educator has been to try to prepare my students for post-secondary education. Outside of their

education, there has been no greater service provided to our students during my career than the D.C. TAG program. Since the

overwhelming majority of our students qualify for free and reduced

lunch, which is another way of saying that there is no money available for college education in their households, the D.C. TAG program has allowed our students to widen their horizons as far as selection and location of colleges and universities. It has also provided them with needed financial assistance.

Those of you who have children who have gone to college or have

children who will go to college have faced or will face the same

question that the parents or caregivers of our students in D.C. face:

how will I pay for my child’s college education?

Your answer might sound something like this: I will use the equity on my house, or I will take out a loan, or I will dip into my

savings, or I will borrow against my insurance policy to take care

of my child. The vast majority of adults who are raising our children in D.C. do not have that answer as an option. There is no equity in a one-bedroom rental or in section 8 housing. You need collateral in order to take out a loan. You can’t dip into a savings account if there is no savings account. Many of the parents or caregivers do not even have life insurance. Most of our graduates who

go on to college are the first members of their family to be able to

do so, and D.C. TAG is the vehicle for this journey.

As you planned or will plan for your child’s college education, it

was or will be a matter of weighing options. Put yourself in a place

where there are no options and then think about how the D.C. TAG

offers hope to the parents and the children.

Although we spend most of our time teaching, we as educators

also spend time advising students, encouraging students, cajoling

students, and even harassing students about the value of a college

education because there is not one student in our schools who

doesn’t have the same American dream. That dream is to have a

good-paying job, a home, a car, and a family. It is the same American dream you had.

It is often said that Members of Congress are reelected because

of the care that they give to their constituents. Our students and

their caregivers have lives filled with unbelievable everyday obstacles that can thwart the achievement of this dream. Our students,

our constituents need to be taken care of, too.

This December Cardozo’s advanced placement program will host

its sixth annual AP reunion. This event allows graduates of our AP

program to come back and talk to the current students about college life and beyond. It is probably no coincidence that the students

who came back to our fifth reunion last December were almost all

recipients of the D.C. TAG awards.

These students, many of them in college or college graduates or

graduate students would not have been able to reach their goals

without the support of this invaluable program. You are all officially invited to our next reunion in December so that you can hear

their stories and share their successes.

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I have always believed that public servants, teachers, and elected

officials have one primary responsibility, and that is to advocate for

those who need help.

The D.C. TAG is such an advocacy program. It has been a Godsend for thousands of students. It has opened doors for them that

were previously shut. There is nowhere you can go in this city and

not bump into someone who has been a recipient of this program.

We often hear words about future leaders and how they are

formed. I would be willing to guarantee that the future leaders of

this city will have been allowed to grow because D.C. TAG provided

the impetus.

Please allow the current and future students of our high schools

the same opportunity that these grateful recipients have had and

reauthorize H.R. 1124 so that future high school graduates in our

city will benefit from a program that provides them with a level

playing field and a chance to live the American dream.

Thank you.

[The prepared statement of Mr. O’Leary follows:]

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Mr. DAVIS OF ILLINOIS. Thank you very much. If I had been

young enough, I would have been delighted to be a student in one

of your classes. We appreciate you.

Mr. O’LEARY. Well, you have an open invitation to please come

and talk to my students.

Mr. DAVIS OF ILLINOIS. Thank you very much.

Dr. Bennett.

STATEMENT OF EMYRTLE BENNETT

Ms. BENNETT. Good afternoon Chairman Davis and distinguished

members of the subcommittee.

As a certified professional counsel for the D.C. public schools, I

welcome this opportunity to testify before the Subcommittee on

Federal Workforce, Postal Service, and the District of Columbia regarding H.R. 1124.

To the mayor in his absence and the Honorable Eleanor Norton

Holmes, to Ms. Gist and D.C. CAP, and all the other constituents

who are helping in D.C. public schools, as a counselor at the Woodrow Wilson High School, the largest high school in the Nation’s

Capital, I am excited to be here today in regards to reauthorization

of the District of Columbia Tuition Assistance Grant Program.

As a veteran educator of 30-plus years and a recent law graduate, I am committed to the mission of educating and lobbying on

behalf of the students and parents of the Washington, DC, area. I

could have turned my head the other way and stayed in the comforts of my office at Woodrow Wilson High School, but when I

thought of the students that come through my office every day I

had to be here on their behalf to plead to you to continue your support to extend the much needed D.C. TAG program.

I shudder to think what would happen to the lives of our young

people if we take away the opportunity for them to have access to

a quality and equitable education as afforded to students in other

States.

It would be hard for me not to say anything on behalf of young

people who had no choice of where they or their family live, but yet

deserve a better chance to higher education. I want to speak for

our students. They look up to me and expect me to lobby on their

behalf so that this funding would not be taken away, as well as

their aspirations for higher education.

As a result of reauthorization of the D.C. TAG program, you

would be providing equity and access to college to D.C. public

school students and investing in our city and the Nation.

College education benefits not only the individual student, but

also society, as a whole. D.C. youth deserve as much access to excellent higher education as their peers in other States. For many

of our students, the thought of paying for college over the next 4

years can be daunting and can discourage many from even applying. However, the D.C. TAG program has made college more attainable and provided opportunities to students who otherwise

would not have the means to pay for post-secondary education.

As the Chair of the Guidance Department at Woodrow Wilson

High School in the District of Columbia, we have been instrumental in helping D.C. students graduate from high school and achieving their dreams of a college education with the D.C. TAG. During

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my tenure, we have increased our student enrollment in universities and colleges in more than 45 States across the country and

the District of Columbia. As a result of the TAG program, there

were 301 students in the class of 2006 who headed off to college

in 171 schools in 41 States, Canada, and the Czech Republic; 336

students headed off in 2005. You are welcome to review the remainder of our collected data since my start at Wilson in 2002.

We believe the significant increase of college placements from

114 in 2002 to 301 in 2006 is a direct impact of the tuition assistance grants and of good guidance that, in turn, rewards students

with educational opportunities available to D.C. public high school

graduates.

More access to higher educational opportunities with increases in

financial aid packages and support from the D.C. TAG will benefit

our students.

The D.C. TAG has many successes. At Wilson since my tenure

I have witnessed my second college graduation of students using

the funds from D.C. TAG. For many of those students, D.C. TAG

influenced their post-secondary plans. I am proud to say that I had

the privilege of working with a former student of mine from Coolidge High School who last year was teaching music at Wilson.

What a living testimony that is. There are many more just like

him. Many of them are here with me today willing to share their

stories of D.C. TAG support and to personally influence each of you

to reauthorize H.R. 1124.

Many of them have come back to D.C. to give back. Some are

teachers. Others are working in D.C. and the metropolitan area,

while others have chosen to return to our local consortium of colleges and universities to study medicine, law, and other forms of

higher education. They, too, have their stories to share, but let me

share just a couple.

Shareem returns from the University of Michigan. She will graduate in May, and she has been accepted to at least two law schools.

Brian, a first-generation Chinese student, needed D.C. TAG to go

away to college. In turn, it gave his three siblings and parents

great joy to see their child go to college and have a better way of

life, as it also allowed the family more space in their two-bedroom

apartment.

Dwayne, a victim of gun violence in his junior year at Wilson,

would not have been able to break the cycle of violence without his

D.C. TAG and ability to go away to college in a new geographical

location, and now he returns older and wiser.

Last, my son, who is seated in the back, with D.C. financial assistance was able to go to college and receive an undergraduate degree, a master’s degree, and will complete his law degree in May.

He has come back to D.C. energized, and he is committing his time

and talent to help students in D.C. by running for the D.C. School

Board in the May 2007 election.

Many parents of students have asked me to share their concerns

about the impact that this D.C. TAG will do if you reauthorize it.

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Again, thank you Mr. Chairman for this opportunity to testify

today before the subcommittee. I am committed to working with

each of you and the subcommittee to ensure that this bill is reauthorized for the District of Columbia public school graduates.

I will be happy to answer any questions.

[The prepared statement of Ms. Bennett follows:]

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Mr. DAVIS OF ILLINOIS. Thank you so much, Dr. Bennett. Of

course, yours is a living testimony. I heard you indicate that many

of the young people look up to you, and I guess if I had a counselor

with a law degree I would look up to her, also. I always have good

things to say about teachers, but I say that counselors are the salt

of the Earth. They are pillars of the university, partly because both

my wife and I worked as school counselors and I have to keep saying that. But thank you so very much for your testimony. We really

appreciate it.

We have been joined by Representative Lynch and Delegate Norton, and I would pause at this moment in the proceedings to ask

if either one of them or both would have some comments they

would like to make at this point.

Mr. LYNCH. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Very, very briefly, I just wanted to thank you for your willingness to hold this important hearing.

I think that, much like what is going on over in the Capitol today

on the subject of the D.C. Voting Rights, this is really an issue that

speaks directly to the fullness of citizenship, and I certainly want

to register my support for the D.C. TAG program. I also want to

speak in favor of the increase from $33 million to $35.1 million in

fiscal year 2008 that has been requested.

I want to thank all the panelists that came here today. Unfortunately, we schedule everything at the same time, so I am late in

attending, but, as Ms. Holmes Norton will attest to, we have been

very busy today. Having registered my support for this measure

and for D.C. voting rights, in general, I think I will yield my time

to the busiest woman in Washington, DC, this morning, Ms.

Holmes Norton.

[The prepared statement of Hon. Stephen F. Lynch follows:]

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Ms. NORTON. I thank my colleague for coming, because I know

what constraints we are up against, and let’s think about the next

bill up is, the Iraq supplemental.

I want to offer my apologies to the Chair, even as I thank him

for making this the first hearing of our subcommittee on this issue.

The reason that we wanted this to be the first hearing is I think

probably been clear from the testimony that has been offered.

I certainly want to apologize to all of our witnesses. I particularly

wanted to hear the witnesses who have benefited from this bill and

regret very much that those that helped them benefit and those

who have taken advantage of this bill had to testify before I came.

I know that perhaps the chairman told you that there was just

a little mishap on the way to the vote, and Tom Davis and I were

called upon to explain to the gathered press, who would not understand what in the world had happened, and whether the voting

rights for the District of Columbia was dead for good. I just want

to say that for sure it is not. It is a delay. You now know what the

Congress is all about—it is all about strategy. It is seldom about

the kind of substance that this bill involves. The chairman, himself,

is a cosponsor of the bill.

You will not hear the games being played about this bill. This

bill has been thoroughly bipartisan in both houses, haven’t had the

slightest problem getting it through, don’t imagine that I will. I

think the major reason is that there was a clear understanding

that among the many ways the District residents are disadvantaged is the absence of a State university system. It has been an

incentive to move out of the city, particularly as college costs have

risen, and right across the line are two States with State university

systems containing upwards of 30 colleges each to choose from.

Worse, we know that not having a full State university system—

you can’t expect the city to have that—being grateful for our State

university, but not having the full range has meant apparently

that large numbers of residents didn’t go to college at all. How else

do you explain the 60 percent or so increase in just 5 years in D.C.

residents attending college? A full range, but perhaps, above all,

the full tuition. The $10,000 is the cost of tuition at most State colleges has spectacularly escalated college attendance in the District

of Columbia.

One thing is sure in this town: if it was a white collar town when

I was a kid growing up here, it is perhaps the part of the United

States now that most requires a college education. Never did have

a blue collar sector. The closest we have to it is our tourist sector.

To earn a decent living it is clear that you are going to need some

college, and thus the Congress looked at that, and it looked at that

when the District was, itself, not doing nearly so well as a city as

it has been during the last 10 years or so. It decided to put its

money on education.

The investment has paid dividends to the Federal Government,

as well as to the city. I heard some of the testimony that talked

about young people coming back. There is every reason to come

back when the city has given you these opportunities.

We are going to move this bill forward as soon as we can, Mr.

Chairman. I hope that chairman of the full committee will move it

on suspension, because it has had such broad support. If not, we

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will simply put it to a vote and hope that there is not a motion to

recommit that tries to kill this one.

Our voting rights bill is not dead. It could be back today. The

only reason I think it won’t be is because we have 6 hours of debate on the Iraq supplemental. It will be back very soon. Meanwhile, it has been a real pleasure to come to a hearing where the

bipartisan accolades about the bill have been ongoing and have

been heard in the city and where Congress has received those accolades by continuing to support the bill, this time with reauthorization.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. DAVIS OF ILLINOIS. Thank you very much, Delegate Norton.

I want to thank our witnesses for your indulgence. We will now

return and hear from Ms. Boone.

STATEMENT OF ALICE BOONE

Ms. BOONE. Chairman Davis, Subcommittee on the Federal

Workforce, Postal Service, and the District of Columbia, I am honored and I thank you for the opportunity to testify today.

From a parent’s perspective, authorization of the D.C. TAG program will greatly benefit D.C. college-bound students with limited

resources for obtaining post-secondary education, as it has greatly

benefited my daughter, who was awarded her first grant in 2004,

and she is completing her sophomore year this May.

I personally value the D.C. TAG program whereby I have been

also able to maintain my household’s cost of living expenses independent from additional State support, and have been able to provide her siblings with also a quality education for post-secondary

attainment.

Moreover, the D.C. TAG program is enabling my daughter to

complete a second milestone in her educational endeavors, which,

in turn, will afford her advantages of home ownership after college

graduation, no Federal student aid debt. At an early age she will

be able to take advantage of lower mortgage interest rates and,

based on a low debt ratio percentage her rise to become a contributor to this economy will be soon and at an early age.

As a parent’s perspective, extension of the D.C. TAG program

would also benchmark a name for itself and D.C. nationally. College-bound students who complete post-secondary education but

elect to establish residency outside of the District of Columbia can

acknowledge and contribute their success to the College Access Act,

which opened doors that otherwise would not have been available

to them.

Home ownership is being strongly encouraged as a national effort, and college graduates with low Federal student loans meeting

qualifications for low-interest mortgage loans will contribute to any

economy that this country values.

Last, from a D.C. homeowner’s perspective, I feel strongly that

the minority participation with the dynamics of this city will greatly increase subsequent to the extension and authorization of the

D.C. TAG program. Low to moderate-income family seeking suitable residence to raise a family can take pride and would strive

harder toward home ownership with attractive amenities such as

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the Public Education Reform Act Amendment of 2007 coupled with

the D.C. TAG program.

Securing children with quality home life and hopes and dreams

of a college education helps communities grow.

Mr. Chairman and the subcommittee, I thank you again for providing me with an opportunity to express my views on this important topic. I would be happy to take any questions.

[The prepared statement of Ms. Boone follows:]

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Mr. DAVIS OF ILLINOIS. Thank you very much, Ms. Boone. Thank

you. We will get to the questions in a minute.

I would like to go to Ms. Chappin, and then I would like to defer

to the ranking member of our full committee, who has joined us,

but we will finish up with Ms. Chappin and then we will proceed

with questions and comments from our ranking member.

STATEMENT OF RANDA CHAPPIN

Ms. CHAPPIN. Good afternoon. My name is Randa Chappin, and

I am here to express that I simply support the efforts of the D.C.

TAG program and the D.C. College Access Act, because it has enabled me to become the person that I am today.

As a sophomore in high school, college was not considered an institution of higher learning for me; it was an institution for debt

creation. I did not have the funds to consider even going for the

first semester, let alone 4 consecutive years. Something had to give,

and it did. D.C. TAG was presented to me as an opportunity to

help manage the financial obstacles I was facing at the time. The

grants were a tremendous blessing to me and allowed me to focus

on my studies instead of waiting in line in the financial aid office

for a resolution that would not come without interest.

Today I am proud to shout that I am a graduate of American

University. I continue to utilize my degree in communications and

urban development to the fullest while running a tutor mentor program at Shaw Junior High School, the most under-funded public

school in the District. I also speak out around the metropolitan

area to teens about college and other real-life issues. I mentor

three teens personally, one of whom just received a full scholarship

to a top 10 university, and another teen that recently placed first

in her class in terms of academics.

Without programs such as D.C. TAG I would not have such a

strong passion to help others and to make a difference in the few

lives God has allowed me to touch.

I am continuing to work and reside in the District, and I feel that

this will always be my home.

Allow me to begin and provide you some perspective of the mental state I had when approaching the idea of higher learning. With

the grades that I had ranging from average to above average, coupled with the lack of advanced learning opportunities, I did not expect to go to college and explore to attain greatness. I expected mediocrity, and all the while I knew better. I knew what heights I

could reach and how the burden of how I would get there would

always cloud my thought process.

It is truly amazing how expensive a college education is becoming. It causes one to return to the never-changing focus of the

haves and the have-nots. I consider myself to be richly blessed and,

while I needed that extra push that D.C. TAG provided, I am more

so concerned and saddened by the thought of those who have more

dire conditions to deal with.

Why should the burden and cost of financing college be affixed

to the unsuspecting student? It is my personal opinion that is not

fair. No one is keeping the public and private institutions of higher

education from trading a degree for what seems like an endless

supply of debt.

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The D.C. TAG program afforded me the opportunity to focus on my studies. It may be a mere $1,000 to some students, but for the

students like myself who are restricted from their classes, sent to

the hell that is the registrar’s office, the financial aid office, and

the student accounts office, for those students who don’t have the

parental cushion of their counterparts, for those young parents

such as myself, and those other young adults, D.C. TAG offered a

financial stress-free resolution like no other. D.C. TAG’s friendly

and cooperative personnel furthered my newly optimistic outlook

on the plausibility of a higher education. The facts, as I saw them,

were that college costs equate in monetary range from a low-end

three-bedroom house to a new condominium downtown.

Also, most of today’s students and their parents are first pointed

out to high-interest loans as a financial aid resolution, and if you

are a young parent, as I am, you have no chance of going and graduating from college. This is the state of mind of young people in

this area that I know firsthand about, that I have cried with them,

and I have gone through the obstacles that they have faced, speaking at the different seminars and what not.

I won’t take any more of your time to further explain what is already seen; however, please be mindful when you are making your

decision that the lives that you affect today are the lives that will

be running your corporations, your government, and other entities

tomorrow.

I took my grant and I finished college at American University

and my life is spent working on somebody else’s behalf in order to

move them further along in their life. This is what I do with my

time. You have an opportunity to continue the change that has already been set forth in 1999, and I hope you will take it.

Thank you.

[The prepared statement of Ms. Chappin follows:]

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Mr. DAVIS OF ILLINOIS. Thank you very much. I want to thank

all of our witnesses.

As I indicated, we have now been joined by a primary sponsor

of this legislation and the ranking member of our full committee,

Representative Tom Davis. I would defer to him for any comments

that he might have at this time.

Mr. DAVIS OF VIRGINIA. Mr. Chairman, thank you very much. Let

me thank our witnesses for being here, as well.

In a little-noticed rule change, one of my last acts as chairman

of the full committee, I added a provision that any chairman of a

subcommittee bearing the title District of Columbia would have to

be led by a member named Davis. While this gives both parties the

widest possible discretion, I am pleased that you, Chairman Davis,

have been so named. [Laughter.]

Mr. DAVIS OF ILLINOIS. Thank you.

Mr. DAVIS OF VIRGINIA. Thus we have the nomenclature continuity here in our Nation’s Capital.

We have traveled a long road since the Access Act, from March

1, 1999, when it was introduced until the present day. The road

took us through the predecessor subcommittee that I chaired at the

time to the full Government Reform Committee, to the House and

Senate floor, and then the White House where President Clinton

signed the measure November 12, 1999.

In all of its legislative approvals, the College Access Act, now

known as the Tuition Assistance Grant Program, was passed

unanimously by voice vote. President Clinton had included sufficient money in his budget submission that year and a statement

of administration policy endorsed the approach we had taken to authorize the use of those funds.

I am very proud of our hard bipartisan effort in enacting this

measure and its reauthorization 2 years ago.

My thanks to Ms. Norton, who was the ranking member in 1999,

who has worked tirelessly to enhance the legislation ever since.

I also want to thank my then-counterpart in the Senate, George

Voinovich, for his continuing support, and Senators Warner and

Durbin for working with us to improve this legislation.

The 5-year reauthorization legislation before us today will enable

District residents to continue to attend colleges and universities at

in-State rates. President Bush, in his budget submission for fiscal

year 2008, has included sufficient funds to make this happen.

Then-Mayor Tony Williams and now D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty

have both strongly supported this law as being very important for

the District’s high school graduates.

As documented to this subcommittee, the graduation rate for

public school students in the city has doubled since this law went

into effect, and we are now incentivizing people to stay in school

and to go to school afterwards. It was just a generation ago where

some D.C. high schools sent more kids to Lorton Reformatory than

to college. We changed that. We changed it a kid at a time, and

this act has played a very important role.

This is a classic leveling of the playing field. No city or county

in the country is required to supplement its in-State rate with local

funds, and neither should the taxpayer in the Nation’s Capital be

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saddled with the burden. Neither should the city be penalized for

its own success in administering this program.

Back on March 4, 1999, when I introduced this bill, I went to

nearby Eastern High School with Ms. Norton. I was deeply moved

by the reaction of the students. I will never forget how many kids

took our hands, looked us in our eyes, and thanked us for introducing the original bill. I am proud of what we have been able to do

in the capital city since 1995 when the city was literally bankrupt.

Economic development, public safety, the real estate market, and

so many other aspects of city life have changed for the better, but

nothing has given me more satisfaction than working to improve

educational opportunities. Fighting for equal education opportunity

is one of the reasons I think most of us entered public life.

You need a healthy city to have a healthy region. Reauthorizing

this law which has expanded higher educational choices is an enormous step forward, and it is a strong part of our vision for the future.

Again, I just want to thank our witnesses for coming and sharing

with us your stories today.

Mr. DAVIS OF ILLINOIS. Thank you very much, Representative

Davis.

Now I would like to go to Representative Sarbanes to see if he

has any questions of this panel.

Mr. SARBANES. I don’t have a question. I just did want to react

to Mr. O’Leary’s initial testimony, though, in terms of presenting.

We talk obviously in terms of what it means to the young people

to have this opportunity, advantage, but it is as equally important

for the families, because it represents whether the promise of the

American dream is real or illusionary to them.

I had the opportunity about 6 months ago to speak with a

woman at one of the MARC train stations in Maryland who was

on her way to her job in the District of Columbia. She wanted to

talk to me about the cost of higher education, and she looked me

in the eye at one point and she said, without any sort of bitterness

or recrimination, she said, I did everything they told me I was supposed to do. She said, my husband and I worked three jobs between

us, we saved our money, and we told our children that if you work

hard and you study you can make it. Now we can’t afford to send

our three children to college.

In that moment I think she was expressing the frustration of an

increasing number of families in this country, which is we thought

that if you played by the rules and you worked hard you could

make it here. Then they find out that there is something, they just

can’t get there. They can’t get across because usually it is the financial aspect of it.

So this program is obviously critical in helping to bridge that,

and the testimony that all of you provided I think simply reinforced

that notion in terms of opportunity.

I said it already twice, Mr. Chairman, but I will say it again: I

think that this program in many ways can model the way we approach and enhance opportunities for higher education across the

whole country. The concepts that are in place here don’t have to

be restricted to the District of Columbia. Although obviously the

District of Columbia has a special claim on this kind of a program

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because of its unusual circumstances, the concepts here are more

widely applicable.

Thank you for your testimony.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. DAVIS OF ILLINOIS. Thank you very much, Representative

Sarbanes.

I will go over to Representative Davis and see if he has any questions.

Mr. DAVIS OF VIRGINIA. Ms. Chappin, let me start with you. You

are a graduate of the program. You understand it. If you look at

your classmates taking advantage of this, without this do you think

a lot of them would have been discouraged from even applying to

college and going forward because the costs were just out of reach?

Ms. CHAPPIN. Absolutely. There is no question whatsoever. The

amount of scholarships that are out in even our local colleges right

now are diminishing, and a lot of them are academic, and a lot of

us just have average grades, so the grants that didn’t hold you to

4.0 all 4 years or the grants where you didn’t have to be almost

destitute in order to be able to go to college, these programs, they

give you that financial push that you need, and they also give you

the counseling, that reciprocity that you need between being a high

school student and an adult, just saying that these are your options

and lay them out on the table. So absolutely, all of them would certainly be able to go forth and even view college as an option. Five

years ago I can’t say the same.

Mr. DAVIS OF VIRGINIA. I think out in our area it has opened it

up to some of our historically black colleges in Virginia—Virginia

State, Virginia Union—others, as well as our community colleges

out there in northern Virginia where you just get a more complete

college choice instead of what you were offered before at this stage.

The facts speak for themselves, the number of kids that are seeing

their way through to graduate from high school and then the numbers that are going on to higher education. Ultimately, if you want

to change the city you have to give the young people the opportunity. Hopefully this is working and this continued reauthorization will continue.

I appreciate everybody sharing their perspectives here. This

should be one D.C. bill that goes through unscathed as we move

through the process, but even in the past we have had problems

with people putting holds on them in the other body and the like,

and so it is important that we build the record here.

Thank you very much.

Mr. DAVIS OF ILLINOIS. Thank you, Representative Davis.

I now go to Ms. Norton and see if she’s got any questions.

Ms. NORTON. As it turned out I did get to hear two of you testify.

I apologize that I was not here for the first testimony.

Of course, it is hard for me to think of a bill that has been more

important to the District of Columbia than this bill. All you have

to do is go talk to your constituents and say D.C. TAG and everybody rises and applauds before you get ‘‘TAG’’ out of your mouth.

I compare it only to the home buyer’s tax credit. One kept people

in the city, kept people from moving out, and the other says if you

are going to live here you had better be educated, and I will be

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darned if D.C. residents didn’t take the cue and come forward in

huge numbers.

I would just like to ask, Ms. Chappin, I don’t know when I have

been more impressed than I have just by your testimony, the way

you presented it and the way you have answered questions. I

mean, you are a walking example that I think says it all, and

somehow we ought to record you and let you speak for the bill.

Ms. CHAPPIN. Thank you.

Ms. NORTON. I would like to know a little bit more about yourself, because I read your testimony, heard your testimony. The candor of your testimony, the sincerity of your testimony is striking.

You didn’t say where you went to high school.

Ms. CHAPPIN. I am sorry. I went to Woodrow Wilson Senior High

School.

Ms. NORTON. You did go to Wilson.

Ms. CHAPPIN. Yes. I stayed all in the Northwest, that corridor.

I went to Horace Mann Elementary School, which is off of New

Mexico Avenue in Northwest. I went to Alice Deal Junior High

School, which is off of—I don’t remember the name of the street.

And then I ended up at Woodrow Wilson, graduated a year early.

I was able to go to Howard University for a year, and then I transferred to American University to finish my studies because Howard

didn’t have the focus that I was looking for, because I know communications is a strong point of mine and I love to talk, but the

urban development aspect——

Ms. NORTON. I will say communications is a strong point of

yours.

Ms. CHAPPIN. The urban development aspect. And one thing I

just wanted to share with you, I find a lot of students, even in the

D.C. area if you open it up to Maryland and Virginia, they feel that

we are told that, get a good education, get a good education, education is the key, that is what you have to do, but then we are not

given the resources that we need to get a good education.

Even when I was in high school at Woodrow Wilson and I was

placed in remedial classes because the AP classes I tested into were

full, and paperwork, they didn’t realize that until November into

the school year, so I was placed into a remedial class. By the time

I got to college I had to catch up tremendously, and I thought I was

doing well. I got an A in remedial math. Well, of course, who can’t

get an A in remedial math? I am sorry.

All I am saying is that we are told so much, and it is drilled into

us that education is where we have to go with it, and it is so much

talk and it is not enough action. We find that we are not supported

in aspects of just getting a good education. We find that we are not

supported in remaining in D.C. Our school system needs improvement, and it is kind of like how do you start when you are already

two steps behind.

So programs such as this kind of made up for the difference and

kind of put you at the same ground level, and it was your choice

to either move forward or stay where you were.

I am happy that a lot of our participants in the D.C. TAG program and the D.C. CAP program, D.C. LEAP recipients, all of

those participants are those that have the passion to move forward

and not stay stagnant.

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Ms. NORTON. You went to two private colleges in the District,

both of them private, meaning you got a grant that was not as high

as a public grant. This is the way many States do it. If you go to

a private college you get considerably less than going to the State

university. So that meant you had to put your college access grant

together with other funds. How did you find other funds? What

kind of funds are available for someone like you who wants to go

to a private college and does not want to take advantage of the

$10,000 grant?

Ms. CHAPPIN. Well, in order to make it to the private college I

held down three jobs the whole duration of my college career. I also

obtained other scholarships from other private organizations and I

honestly just wrote letters to almost everybody that I could think

of saying hey, I would like to finish school, can you help me out.

I was able to obtain scholarships from all of those other organizations. And there is also the Pell Grant. That is also very appreciated.

Ms. NORTON. The cobbling together of funds that virtually every

student does today, one way or the other—some may qualify for

some and not others—makes college education possible for everybody. Of course, if you live in a city that doesn’t have a State university system it becomes more difficult, which is the reason for

TAG.

You indicated that you were employed at the Heart Rhythm Society.

Ms. CHAPPIN. Yes.

Ms. NORTON. Where is that located?

Ms. CHAPPIN. That is located at 14th and K in Washington, DC,

mere blocks from the White House, I believe.

Ms. NORTON. What do you do for the Heart Rhythm Society?

Ms. CHAPPIN. I am the executive assistant to the vice president

of communications and marketing. The organization basically holds

a lot of scientific sessions, and they are a group of professionals

geared toward increasing information, advocacy, and just overall

aspects of those professionals who work in cardiac rhythm issues,

so whether that is sudden cardiac arrest, ICDs, all of those great

things.

Ms. NORTON. Did you have any difficulty finding employment

once you graduated? How long were you unemployed?

Ms. CHAPPIN. I was unemployed——

Ms. NORTON. Well, when did you graduate?

Ms. CHAPPIN. I graduated in May 2005, and I was unemployed

for probably, I want to say about 14 hours after I received my degree.

Ms. NORTON. How come? How were you able to get a job so

quickly?

Ms. CHAPPIN. Pounding pavement.

Ms. NORTON. It doesn’t look like you pounded much pavement.

Ms. CHAPPIN. Well, I was already looking. The only reason I

graduated in 2005 and 2004 was because of a missed class, so I

was already sending out resumes and what-not with the understanding that I was going to graduate in the winter of 2004. Came

to light, had to take that last class, and I had offers available to

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me, and I graduated Mother’s Day on 2005 and I began work that

Monday.

Ms. NORTON. So, notwithstanding the considerably higher unemployment rate among District residents, you did not have any difficulty finding employment once you had your college degree?

Ms. CHAPPIN. None whatsoever.

Ms. NORTON. You went through in 4 years without stopping?

Ms. CHAPPIN. Not at all.

Ms. NORTON. Well, Mr. Chairman, again, I appreciate that you

have reached out to find a student who could speak for herself

about the value of TAG, because I think she has said it all.

Thank you. I yield.

Mr. DAVIS OF ILLINOIS. Well, thank you very much, Ms. Norton.

We want to thank all of our witnesses, those who are still here

and those who testified earlier. I think that you make a compelling

cases, as well as demonstrate a tremendous amount of interest in

higher education. I know that all members of this subcommittee

appreciate your coming and spending time and sharing not only

your experiences but also your thoughts with us.

All of this is very timely because, as you can see, we are about

to have a vote, and so it is an excellent time.

I also want to thank our staff for pulling together the hearing.

Again, we thank you all for coming.

This hearing is adjourned.

[Whereupon, at 3:45 p.m., the subcommittee was adjourned.]

[The prepared statement of Hon. Elijah E. Cummings follows:]

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