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Veterans' Day Ceremony - Greer Band |
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DeMint, Obama Introduce Bipartisan Education Opportunity Act
Legislation Would Provide Grants to High School Students to Take College-Level Courses |
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September 29th, 2006 - WASHINGTON, D.C - Today, U.S. Senators Jim DeMint (R-South Carolina) and Barack Obama (D-Illinois) introduced the Education Opportunity Act, which would expand college-level opportunities for high school students using needs-based education grants.
“This legislation will help keep our high school students in school by raising their expectations and showing them they can do college-level work,” said Senator DeMint.
“We know that the more we challenge our high school students, the more we force them to think critically and push themselves, the more likely it is they’ll attend college and get a degree,” said Obama. “But too often schools that serve lower-income communities don’t offer advanced courses, and talented students who want to push themselves don’t ever get the chance. This bipartisan legislation would allow high school students to use need-based grants to enroll in advanced courses that will set them on the path to a college degree.”
These grants will allow low-income high school students to receive scholarships for classes at a university or community or technical college while they are enrolled in high school. This is important because low-income students who participate in Advanced Placement (AP) programs, which give students the opportunity to take college-level courses in high school, are much more likely to enroll and be successful in college than their peers. While enrollment in AP courses has nearly tripled over the past decade, studies show that minority students participate in AP at rates far below those of non-minority students, since many students from low-income families attend schools that do not offer AP classes. The grants proposed in the Education Opportunity Act will allow students who excel at subjects not offered for Advanced Placement credit at their high schools to seek college credit elsewhere.
High school students in South Carolina are dropping out at an alarming rate, with half of all students failing to complete high school in four years. In Illinois, among those who graduate from high school, 45 percent are either not ready or minimally ready for college, according to the Illinois Education Research Council. The most at-risk students come from low-income families. These grant scholarships will target those kids and allow them to focus on their particular interests at an early age.
“Too many of our students are losing interest in their education because their abilities go beyond what is offered at their high school,” said DeMint. “Our high school dropout rate is absolutely miserable, but we can do something about it. Our bill gives high school students access to classes and training that they need to be successful.”
The federal government already allows Pell Grants to pay for college-aged students taking remedial or high school level classes. But it does not provide grants to pay for younger students to take college level classes. That means the government pays for an 18 year old to take a high school class, but not for a 16 year old to take a college class. The Education Opportunity Act proposal would tie the funds for low-income students directly to merit and not age, thereby opening up grants to high school students, allowing them greater class selection, including computer science, engineering, and chemistry.
Earlier this year, Senator DeMint announced his intention to sponsor the legislation as part of his statewide “Success in School, Success in Life” tour. He was joined by S.C. Superintendent of Education Inez Tenenbaum who endorsed the proposal.
“We should support high school students who are ready for college-level work, regardless of their family incomes,” Superintendent Tenenbaum said. “The best way to do that is to make funds available for these kinds of advanced courses to students prepared for them.”
“We know that opportunity comes when we empower students and parents,” DeMint concluded. “These grants will give our kids and their parents more choices and the ability to follow the education path that meets their needs. It’s time to stop forcing our kids to fit our education system and start forcing the system to fit our kids.”
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