Date: 2004-05-04
Speaker: LINDA T. SANCHEZ (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Cali

fornia. Mr. Speaker. I am here this evening to talk about an issue that is very near and dear to my heart and that is the need for access to higher education. A long time ago. a college education was reserved for the welltodo. not something that an ordinary citizen could readily achieve. But over time. that changed and now a college education is no longer a privilege of just a few but a necessity to achieve any kind of job security in our very fluid economy. But. sadly. just as a college education has become an absolutely crucial component of obtaining a good job. the Bush administration is making it harder and harder to access and afford a college education. As a 30something Member of Congress. and I will admit to the gentleman from Florida I am in my 30s. I am here to speak on behalf of young people who are struggling to achieve the American dream of a decent college education. Rather than burdening todays young people with overwhelming debt. there are several things that we can do to help. We need to slow down the tuition hikes and encourage States to maintain their commitment to higher education. And we should double the Pell grant award and make it available year round. Finally. we should implement Senator JOHN KERRYs idea for $50 billion in tax credits to help Americans afford all 4 years of college. The typical loan debt has nearly doubled over the past 10 years for the average student. with 64 percent of students needing to borrow money to finance their college education. I too struggled to make college and law school a reality. As it turned out. all seven children in my family were fortunate enough to obtain a college degree. But we all did it with the assistance of Federal grants and Federal loans. loans. I might add. that I will be paying off until I am in my 60s. Despite the fact that we came from immigrant parents who did not speak much of the language when they first got here and were of limited economic means. all seven of my brothers and sisters and I graduated from a college institution. Most amazingly. however. my mother returned to school after the youngest of her seven children started kindergarten and she went to night school to earn her 2year degree and later transferred to a 4year institution and graduated from college in her late 40s to become a bilingual education teacher. That is how strongly she believed in a quality education and in showing and demonstrating to us that education was truly the key to the American dream in this country. I find that the current atmosphere that works against students who are trying to finance their way through school is really something that undermines many of the American values that we hold dear. Overwhelming debt can force students to take on jobs to try to work their way through school to the detriment of their education. or in some instances students forgo college all together assuming that the expensive and exorbitant tuition hikes are far out of their reach. In the past year alone. tuition has increased an average of 14 percent at 2- and 4year public institutions. and it has increased 6 percent at 4year private schools. That is just in 1 year. That is not even counting the fact that the cost of living keeps rising and things like rent and food and books go up as well. In response. President Bush has ignored the tuition problem. cut or frozen student aid. and levied higher taxes onto students. If we do not have an education President. then we definitely need to have an education Congress. I urge my colleagues on the other side of the aisle to break with their President and fight for education support for our young people. Let us send the President legislation making education more affordable and more accessible to all. and let us dare him to sign it. The bottom line is that the leadership in Congress needs to stop talking about education and actually do something about it. I again thank the gentleman from Florida for allowing me to speak this evening.