Congressional Budget for the United States Government for Fiscal Year 2007

CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET FOR THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT FOR FISCAL YEAR 2007

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Ms. COLLINS. Mr. President, I am very pleased to join my colleague from Massachusetts in sponsoring this important amendment. I want to recognize that the Senator from New Hampshire is a longtime champion of education programs and, indeed, under President Bush, education programs have received considerable additional spending. But we can and we should do more. There is no greater investment in the future of this country than to invest in the education of our young people. This amendment would restore cuts and increase funding for absolutely critical education and job training programs in this budget.

Let me talk about some of those programs. Let's begin with the Pell Grant Program. Pell grants go to our neediest families. The average income of a family whose student is receiving a Pell grant is only about $16,000 a year. We are proposing to provide a $450 increase in the Pell grant maximum award. That would increase it from $4,050 to $4,500.

The maximum award has not been increased for 4 years, while the cost of higher education has skyrocketed. Let's look at the impact on students.

In 1975, the year I graduated from college, the amount of the maximum Pell grant award was sufficient to cover approximately 80 percent of the average costs of attending a public 4-year institution--80 percent. Today it covers less than 40 percent of those costs. That disparity means that higher education is further and further out of reach for too many low-income students.

Let's talk about the impact of another program. It is the TRIO Programs, the aspirations-raising programs. I know firsthand what a difference these programs make in my home State of Maine where too few families have experience with higher education and, thus, their children find higher education to be something unknown or something they are not sure they can handle.

These aspiration-raising programs give the mentoring assistance, the encouragement, the help that is needed so that talented young people realize that higher education is within their grasp.

The Upward Bound Program is a wonderful program that has changed so many lives. Just yesterday, I talked with a student from the University of Southern Maine who told me that but for the TRIO Programs, he would not today be in college.

The GEAR UP Program has been very successful in my State. I have met with members of the University of Maine at Farmington GEAR UP partnership which partners with the middle school in Dicksfield, ME. Listen to these results and I think it will help convince my colleagues of the need to maintain an increased funding for this important program.

When this middle school first got its GEAR UP grant in 1999, only 37 percent of the graduating high school students went on to postsecondary education--only 37 percent. But last June, the first group of students that had gone through the GEAR UP Program graduated. Mr. President, do you know how many of them went on to higher education? More than 82 percent. What a difference this program has made. It doubled the number of students going on to higher education. It has completely changed the aspirations of students growing up in this small rural community in western Maine.

Another important restoration in the Kennedy-Collins amendment is for vocational education under the Perkins program. Again, I have seen firsthand the incredible results of Federal investments in vocational education. The United Technology Center in Bangor is a wonderful example of a regional technical high school that encourages students to stay in school, to expand their horizons, and to gain new skills.

I visited the United Technology Center twice and, believe me, the Federal funding, the $171,000 that this school receives, is making all the difference in the lives of the students enrolled there. I saw an excitement about learning. I talked to students who told me that the standard high school curriculum didn't reach them. They are learning so much in this vocational education setting, and that Federal investment, again, changes lives.

I hope very much that we will adopt this amendment. The budget is all about setting priorities, and surely--surely--in this country we can make the investments we need to help our neediest students pursue higher education, to help families who may not have the experience of going on to college so they receive the encouragement, mentoring, and support they need, and to help our vocational education programs.

Finally, my State has seen a real loss of manufacturing jobs in the past decade. The workforce investment training programs have been essential in helping displaced workers start new careers and new lives.

I hope we will adopt this amendment. I think it will make a great deal of difference to individual families, to our States, and to our economy.

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Ms. COLLINS. Mr. President, the need to more widely invest in education is widely recognized by our Nation's employers. We have seen recent studies by the National Academy of Sciences warning that our country is losing its edge in math and science education. We have seen employer groups such as the National Association of Manufacturers call for greater investment. We have the opportunity to answer those calls by approving this amendment.

Prior to my election to the Senate, I worked at a college in Maine, and I saw firsthand how vital these Federal programs were. I hope we will adopt the amendment. It will make a difference to our families, our States, and our Nation.

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