New Congress Must Support Higher Education

In a year when Democrats swept to power in part because of the greatest youth-voter turnout in twenty years, Congress must move to both increase its financial support of higher education, while making efforts to open the doors to all deserving youth.

The number of Pell Grants (money that does not need to be paid back) has been out paced by population growth, while the interest rates for student loans has increased. $12 billion of federal spending was cut from higher education over this past year alone. This is while average tuition and fees at private colleges increased 5.9 percent to $22,218 in the current academic year. The average undergraduate leaves school more than $20,000 in debt, compared with about $16,000 in 1999-2000, according to the Journal Star of Lincoln, Nebraska.

While opponents of higher education spending say that such ideas will dilute its worth, the exact opposite is true: by filling colleges with our best and brightest—rather than the richest—we can help ensure our societies improvement and stability. We must support a system based on merit rather than privilege.

The fact that San Francisco’s congressional representative is now the Speaker of the House should be an asset to achieving this end, rather than a political roadblock. Pelosi is fond of compromise to achieve political goals, but this is an issue where the Democrats need leadership, fight for the highest possible end, and force President Bush to either support or Veto help for college students. Twenty years ago, a maximum federal Pell grant covered nearly 60% of the average tuition costs at a public university, while today's grants cover just over 30%, according to the Detroit Free Press. And this is happening while what’s left of our middle class is destroyed, and while the poor are being pushed further out of society.

More
http://www.beyondchron.org/news/index.php?itemid=3953#more