Higher Ed

Here’ my response to the release of details contained in the House continuing resolution.

Here’s my statement in response to the passage of House Resolution 38, a bill instructing the House Budget Chair to reduce non-security discretionary spending to fiscal year 2008 level, or less, by a vote of 256-165.

Earlier this month Congress acted to stop a huge cut to the Pell Grant program for next year.

The Pell Grant program is the cornerstone federal financial aid program, assisting close to 9 million students in paying for college.

Previous to the huge and historic passage of the College Cost Reduction and Access Act of 2007 in September 2007, students were hard at work to make college afffordable.

After Senators and members of Congress returned from August recess, students and student advocates were hopeful that both chambers had hammered out a new and final policy to help solve the problem of deep student loan debt. The process unfolded quickly – within two days, the House and Senate Education committees pulled together a joint press event with the Student PIRGs and coalition partners to announce final passage of the College Cost Reduction and Access Act of 2007.

In the spring of 2005, Congress cut the student loan program by $12 billion dollars, forcing interest rates on loans to go higher and making college dangerously expensive. Students at UConn and at hundreds of campuses across the country fought the cuts, but we lost narrowly