What is the senator doing to help the overwhelming number of Gen X and Gen Y professionals with an unmanageable burden of student loans?
While this may not be a major concern of older Pennsylvanians, it is a major concern for young professionals (who will eventually be providing key services for older Pennsylvanians) and young families. With sky rocketing tuition, more and more young Pennsylvania voters are graduating with student loan payments that are larger than a monthly mortgage payment.
A mortgage bailout, while appealing to your older constituents, does nothing help the next generations who will be leading this state in the years to come. It does take them any closer to owning a home and it does not free up credit in order for them to take on small business loans.
What will you do to earn the support of Gen Y? What will you do to help us as we begin our lives in Pennsylvania?
Dear Mrs. Morgan:
Thank you for contacting me regarding your views on student loans. I appreciate you taking the time to inform me of your views on this important matter. I would like to take this opportunity to offer a brief report on work being done in Congress to address education issues.
As Ranking Member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee that oversees Federal discretionary education funding, I continue to review and advance methods to improve our nation’s education system. When I became Chairman of the Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education (LHHS) Appropriations Subcommittee in Fiscal Year (FY) 1996, the level of discretionary funding for the U.S. Department of Education was $23 billion. Throughout my tenure as Chairman or Ranking Member of LHHS, I have strongly advocated for increasing discretionary education funding to today’s level of $59.2 billion in FY08. This is an increase of $36.2 billion or 157% since FY96.
It is important that every child have access to the quality of education necessary for success in the 21st Century. I have worked from my Appropriations Subcommittee position to highlight the critical need for early childhood development programs. In FY08, I worked to secure nearly $6.9 billion for Head Start, which is a community-based program providing educational, nutritional and medical services to low-income preschoolers. Since FY96, Federal funding for Head Start has increased from $3.6 billion to nearly $6.9 billion, or 92%.
In 2001 I supported enactment of the No Child Left Behind Act, which was approved with bipartisan support and ensures that students will no longer be allowed to advance from grade to grade regardless of whether they are learning at grade level. However, I strongly believe there needs to be state flexibility in the implementation of the Act. Each state has the knowledge of the particular challenges facing its education system, including accounting for students with learning, emotional and English language difficulties.
The No Child Left Behind Act is expected to be considered for reauthorization in 2008. In the past, I invited superintendents from Pennsylvania to Washington, D.C. to testify before the U.S. Secretary of Education at a hearing on education funding, including funding for the No Child Left Behind Act. The testimony of the superintendents was critical to providing insight on state flexibility and implementation of the Act. I will continue to work with Pennsylvania educators to ensure that they have a voice throughout the reauthorization process.
I also worked to provide $14 billion in FY08 for Title I grants to school districts, which comprises the largest part of the No Child Left Behind Act. Title I grant funds have increased 49.6% since the Act was passed in 2001.
I am also committed to ensuring that the Federal government meets its goal to provide 40% of the excess costs associated with providing special education to students with disabilities. To this end, I supported an allocation of $11 billion for Special Education Grants to states in FY08 to help states meet the goals of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act. At this level of funding, I have worked to increase the Federal contribution to educate children with disabilities to 19% of the national average spending per student, up from 7.3% in FY96. Additionally, I demonstrated my commitment to reaching the goal of 40% as one of only ten members to cross the aisle to support an amendment offered by Senator Tom Harkin during the most recent reauthorization of this Act, which would have increased funding to meet this target by 2011. Unfortunately, the amendment failed.
Additionally, I have taken the lead on the LHHS Appropriations Subcommittee to increase funding for the Higher Education Act, which authorizes the Federal government’s student financial aid programs. Specifically, I have battled to increase the maximum award for Pell grants. This important financial aid program makes post-secondary education more affordable for our nation’s neediest students. Today, the maximum Pell grant award is $4,310. Since FY96, the maximum award has risen $1,771, or 72%, from $2,470 to $4,241.
The Higher Education Act also authorizes programs that provide services and incentives to disadvantaged students to help increase their access to postsecondary education. I have worked to secure funding for GEAR UP, which provides tutoring, financial aid counseling and college scholarships to low-income students from the seventh grade through high school graduation. Since the program began in FY99, I have consistently supported increasing funding from the initial $120 million to $303 million in FY08, an increase of $183 million or 153%. In addition, I have advocated for support of the TRIO program, which provides student support services to participants who are from low-income families and are first-generation college students. Federal funding for the TRIO program has increased from $463 million in FY96 to $828 million in FY08, an increase of $365 million or 79%.
I have been a strong advocate for our nation’s education systems and the students and families that are served by them, and I will continue to be in the future.
Thank you again for contacting me. The concerns of my constituents are of great importance to me, and I rely on you and other Pennsylvanians to inform me of your views. Should you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact my office or visit my website at http://specter.senate.gov.
Sincerely,
Arlen Specter
Dear Senator Specter:
Thank you for making the effort to tailor your response to my question. However, the most important question you made no attempt to answer.
What will you do to earn the support of Gen Y? What will you do to help us as we begin our lives in Pennsylvania?
Telling me about your support of “No Child Left Behind” does not tell me how you will help me or my family. I don’t have kids. And my husband and I cannot afford to have children due to rising costs.
We may have had access to education in order to succeed in the 21st century but we are unable to pay for it. Monies were made available for low income or disadvantaged students but the middle class of suburbia is struggling to educate their young adults in a competitive and cost effective manner.
We are graduating with more and more debt every year. Does this concern you? It concerns me. It concerns my family. It concerns my neighbors and it concerns my peers.
What are you going to do to help your constituents? What are you going to do to support the “twenty-somethings” in Pennsylvania?
I look forward to your response.
Kind Regards,
Mrs. Dorie A. Morgan
Milena Thomas said...
1Dorie - you are quite wonderful. This is just great. And I think the answer to your question is yes - if you can get a voting bloc big enough to woo a candidate, you’re in. Is it fair? Nope. Is it how the game is played? Yep. Candidates pander to the median voter (you know, that chunk of citizenry that creates the biggest hump on a graph of politcal wants?)
So - I think the place to start is with a catchy acronym for Gen Y?
GYIYF? (Gen Y In Your Face) Or something fun like that…
: )
10/9/08 11:42 AM | Comment Link
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