College Opportunity and Affordability Act of 2007
Floor Speech
COLLEGE OPPORTUNITY AND AFFORDABILITY ACT OF 2007 -- (House of Representatives - February 07, 2008)
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Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Chairman, we all know that paying for college is often a daunting task for our Nation's students and families. It can sometimes be difficult to calculate the full costs and find ways to meet them. Far too many students graduate with too much debt--debts that can limit their choices and strain their finances. I am proud that this Congress has focused significant attention on this issue.
Last year this Congress passed the largest increase in student assistance since the Montgomery G.I. Bill. That increase was fully paid for by reducing subsidies to banks and lenders. Today, we continue our commitment to increasing access to higher education with the College Opportunity and Affordability Act.
This bill provides transparency and clarity in the often-confusing process that students and families face as they decide how to pay for college. It simplifies the Free Application for Federal Student Aid process and creates a shorter form for low-income families. It instructs the Secretary of Education to create a user-friendly website that centralizes information about schools and costs. It also makes sure that students and parents get easy-to-understand information about the terms and conditions of both federal and private loans.
The College Opportunity and Affordability Act also includes provisions from the House-passed Student Loan Sunshine Act, which requires schools and lenders to adopt strict codes of conduct to avoid conflicts of interest and protect students from aggressive lending practices.
Today's bill also furthers our Competitiveness Agenda, begun with the America COMPETES Act last year, by creating programs to recruit new science and technology teachers and collaborate with the business community to improve science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) and foreign language education.
It continues our commitment to our Nation's military, creating new scholarships for active duty personnel and their families, providing support for veterans at college, and ensuring that they have fair access to student and housing aid.
I thank the chairman and ranking member for including many of the provisions from the Teach for America Act, a bill that I introduced last year with Mr. Castle, Ms. DeLauro, Mr. Regula, and Mr. Sarbanes. These provisions, combined with the amendment to clarify specific authorizing amounts that Mr. Castle and I offered today, will allow Teach for America to expand its reach with 8,000 corps members serving 680,000 children in 33 regions around the country.
Mr. Chairman, this bill will increase transparency, put more qualified teachers in our classrooms, and open the doors to college to our Nation's children. I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting it today.
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Amendment No. 24 offered by Mr. Van Hollen:
At the end of section of section 271 of the Higher Education Act of 1965, as added by section 201 of the bill, add the following new subsection:
``(f) Authorization of Appropriations.--Of the sums authorized to be appropriated by section 240, the amount authorized to be appropriated to carry out this section shall not exceed--
``(1) $20,000,000 for fiscal year 2009;
``(2) $25,000,000 for fiscal year 2010; and
``(3) such sums as may be necessary for each of the 3 succeeding fiscal years''.
The Acting CHAIRMAN. Pursuant to House Resolution 956, the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Van Hollen) and a Member opposed each will control 5 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Maryland.
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Chairman, I rise today to join my colleague, Mr. Castle of Delaware, in offering this amendment in support of Teach for America. And I want to recognize the efforts of Mr. Castle for his years of advocacy for this very important cause and thank Chairman Miller and Ranking Member McKeon for their stalwart bipartisan support for Teach for America.
For many years, Teach for America has pioneered an innovative and very successful approach to teacher recruitment, placing over 17,000 outstanding college graduates in schools around our Nation, reaching over 2 million students. Many of those graduates remain in education after teaching as corps members, either as teachers or as principals, or remain otherwise active within our educational community.
This is a program that has received strong bipartisan support from this Congress, and the Teach for America Act, which authorizes the partnership between the Federal Government and this important program, was introduced on a bipartisan basis by a number of us, including Mr. Castle, Ms. DeLauro, who has been a champion of this issue, Mr. Regula, Mr. Sarbanes, and now has over 105 cosponsors. And I want to thank Chairman Miller and the committee for incorporating the major provisions of that legislation into the bill that is before us today.
This amendment proposes one change, which is the bill before us authorizes such sums as may be necessary for this program. And what this amendment does is seek to clarify our congressional intent with respect to the specific targets that we want to hit with respect to funding. It sets an authorized level of $20 million for fiscal year 2009 and $25 million for fiscal year 2010. And those are the levels that are consistent with the Teach for America's published budget. And with this funding, Teach for America can expand from 5,000 members in 26 urban and rural areas around the country, to 8,000 members in 33 regions and serve 680,000 economically disadvantaged children.
This is an important, real impact. Teach for America has been forthright about its plans, and it raises about 80 percent of its funds from nongovernment sources. This amendment, of course, does not make this mandatory, but it clearly says that this is the intent of Congress to reach these levels. These are the levels necessary to get the job done and make sure we fund our share of this very important partnership.
Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.
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