College Cost Reduction Act of 2007

Floor Speech

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Ms. SCHAKOWSKY. Mr. Speaker, this is such an exciting day. Today, we say to the nearly 200,000 students every year who do not attend college for financial reasons, you deserve better. You deserve better than outdated financial aid packages, crippling debt, and empty promises of support once you graduate. Today we are delivering on that promise.

Higher education has become increasingly important in this country and around the world, yet it has been rapidly slipping from the grasp of thousands and thousands of students every year. Over the past several years, states have cut higher education funding and in many cases, passed that cost on to students.

Student loans, which for two-thirds of our students average $20,000, not only affect student's financial viability down the road, they effect the range of opportunities that are available to new graduates as they seek out professions that will enable them to repay their loans. Education is supposed to be the gateway to opportunity, not the path to financial ruin.

One of the most important provisions of H.R. 2669 is an expansion of eligibility and an increase in the Pell grant scholarship to $5,200 over the next 5 years. This bill will also encourage and enable graduates to go into the public service fields they're interested in--and which our country so desperately needs--by providing loan forgiveness for first responders, early childhood educators, librarians, nurses, public defenders, and public prosecutors. These professions are some of the most important to our communities, yet they are chronically undersupported.

This bill will also provide tuition assistance to students who commit to teaching in public schools, high-poverty communities, and high-need subject areas. It also makes a landmark investment in Hispanic-Serving Institutions and Tribally Controlled, Native or Predominately Black Institutions.

By redirecting excessive Federal subsidies for lenders in the student loan industry, these new commitments will come at no additional cost to taxpayers. It's time that taxpayer dollars go towards our student's future--and the future of our competitiveness as a nation.

I urge my colleagues to support this remarkable legislation.

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