page_title: Debbie Stabenow
section_title: Education
hierarchical_section_title: Debbie Stabenow / Political positions / Education
caption_attribution_description: Photo provided by the office of U.S. Senator Debbie Stabenow.
context_page_description: Deborah Ann Greer Stabenow is an American politician serving as the senior United States Senator from Michigan, a seat she was first elected to in 2000. A member of the Democratic Party, she became the state's first female U.S. Senator after defeating Republican incumbent Spencer Abraham. Before her election to the Senate, she was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, representing Michigan's 8th congressional district. Previously she served on the Ingham County Board of Commissioners and in the Michigan State Legislature.
  Stabenow served as Chair of the Senate Agriculture Committee from 2011 to 2015. She was reelected to the Senate for a fourth term in 2018. She became the state's senior U.S. Senator upon the retirement of Carl Levin on January 3, 2015. She became Chair of the Senate Democratic Policy Committee in 2017.
context_section_description: In 2011, Stabenow introduced the Reengaging Americans in Serious Education Act (RAISE UP Act), whereby the Labor Department would fund programs to help "disconnected youth" get diplomas, degrees, and job certifications. In 2012, she co-sponsored a bill to freeze student loan interest rates at 3.4 percent and make additional funds available for Pell Grants.
  In 2016, Stabenow and others introduced the Reducing Educational Debt Act, which she promoted with the #InTheRed hashtag.
  She expressed "strong concerns" about Trump's nomination of Betsy DeVos as Education Secretary, saying that "DeVos and her family have a long record of pushing policies that I believe have seriously undermined public education in Michigan and failed our children."
caption: Stabenow meeting with students from the Ross School of Business in 2016
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