New act proposed in House to help send more kids to college

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and two members of Congress introduced the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2009 in the House of Representatives on Tuesday.
The bill is intended to give the United States the highest college completion rate in the world by 2020.

“This is a really historic day for our country. This is a significant investment,” Duncan said in a conference call with college student reporters Tuesday afternoon.

Also on the call were Representatives George Miller (D-Calif.), chair of the Committee on Education and Labor, and Tim Bishop (D-N.Y.)

“Over the next several days, the House will consider a legislation that’s transformative,” Miller said.

The act—officially known as H.R. 3221—would reform the federal student loan system and the financial aid application process, and funnel additional money to community colleges. It aims to increase the national graduation rate to meet goals outlined by President Barack Obama, CC ‘83, who has emphasized the importance of developing a workforce prepared for 21st-century jobs.
“We have to educate our way to a better economy,” Duncan said.

According to Miller, over the next 10 years, the bill would save the country $87 billion in existing expenses, which would then be directed to the aforementioned programs and initiatives at no additional cost to taxpayers.

The first part of the act proposes allocating $10 billion to support the Early Learning Challenge Grant, a request for $300 million in the president’s budget to allocate grants to states to bolster and consolidate early childhood education programs.

“The best investment we can make is on the early childhood investment side,” Duncan said, emphasizing the importance of ensuring three and four-year-olds do not fall behind in their first years of school.

The second part of the bill would switch all colleges and universities to the federal Direct Loan system and, the sponsors said, simplify the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, which is required of all college students seeking federal grants or loans. It also suggests an increase in funding for Pell Grants, a $6 billion increase in loans for the neediest students, and the creation of a College Access and Completion Innovation Fund to ensure that first-generation and disadvantaged college students are able to graduate.

$12 billion would go to strengthen community colleges as part of Obama’s American Graduation Initiative.

“Community colleges are the unpolished gem along the education continuum,” Duncan said. “They can help the entire country get back on its feet.”

Another piece of the bill supports the expansion of online education as a way to make college accessible to everyone, especially in these tough economic times, when many young people are working full-time jobs.

Putting the legislation in perspective, Bishop noted that the U.S. has fallen to sixth in the world in number of people attending college, and, he said, only half of those students will graduate.
“That doesn’t bode well for our future in terms of our workforce being as competitive as it needs to,” he said.

The act was announced on the House floor Tuesday, and Miller and Bishop said they hoped to complete the amendment process by Wednesday afternoon.

Both said they anticipated more difficulty passing the bill in the Senate than in the House, but expected to have the act to the White House for Obama to sign by Christmas.

“We want to build a culture of college completion at every single college and university in the country,” Bishop said.

News@columbiaspectator.com">News@columbiaspectator.com