Education
| Early Education | K-12 Education | College and Post-Secondary Education |
IN DEPTH: Press Releases
Access to a quality education is not a luxury; it is every child’s right. I believe that we must provide every child with opportunities to be the best that he or she can be, regardless of background, socio-economic status, or geographic location. Providing a strong education to our children is essential for us to maintain our competitive edge in today’s global marketplace, and I will continue my never-ending fight to ensure that the schools in the 7th District are provided with the resources they need to raise the next generation of leaders.
Early Education:
Children are one of our most vulnerable populations, and we have an obligation to protect and provide for them. Studies have shown that young children with access to early care and education are more likely to graduate from high school and less likely to be incarcerated in their lifetimes.
I have long been an outspoken advocate for the highly effective national Head Start program, which provides comprehensive education, health, nutrition, and parent involvement services to low-income children and their families. During the 110th Congress, I supported the Head Start for School Readiness Act, H.R. 1429. This legislation, which successfully passed in the House of Representatives, expands Head Start to allow as many as 10,000 additional children to participate in it. It also increases funding for teacher salaries and professional development and improves cooperation between Head Start and state and local child care programs to increase full-day and full-year services.
K-12 Education:
A child’s education sets the stage for the life he or she will lead, so we must guarantee that every child has access to a high-quality education. This means fully funding our public education programs to provide a strong workforce of teachers adept in the subjects they are teaching.
This year, the No Child Left Behind Act is scheduled to expire. I have been actively involved with the reauthorization of this program to assure that the federal government does not hand down mandates to Maryland without providing all of the resources necessary to fulfill these obligations. Additionally, I have been working closely with Congressman George Miller, Chairman of the House Committee on Education and Labor, to address the unacceptably high dropout rate.
Researchers at Johns Hopkins University have shown that in nearly 13 percent of American high schools, the typical freshman class shrinks by 40 percent or more by the time students reach their senior year. These “dropout factories” serve large numbers of minority and low-income students and have fewer resources and less-qualified teachers than schools in more affluent neighborhoods with larger numbers of white students. These numbers are stark and are indicative of the need to focus on fixing the contributing factors.
It is important that all of our children—especially those with special needs—have access to the highest quality of teachers. For this reason, I introduced the Teacher Training Expansion Act, H.R. 582, to train more teachers to serve children with disabilities in integrated settings. I also supported the 10,000 Teachers, 10 Million Minds Science and Math Scholarship Act, H.R. 362, to add thousands of highly qualified math and science teachers to our schools.
College and Post-Secondary Education:
Adjusting for inflation, tuition at four-year colleges has increased by nearly 40 percent in the last five years, making it increasingly difficult for families to afford college for their children. Each year, more than 200,000 students miss out on college because they cannot afford it. We cannot continue to allow the high costs of college to act as a roadblock to our children’s futures. I am committed to ensuring that every child has the opportunity to turn the American Dream of receiving a college education into a reality.
I am a strong supporter of the Pell Grant, which opens the door to higher education for many low-income students. At the start of this Congress, I supported a budget resolution, S.Con.Res.21, to increase the maximum Pell Grant scholarship, the first increase signed into law since 2003. I recently voted to pass the Pell Grant Equity Act, H.R. 990, which repealed a rule unfairly reducing scholarship aid for thousands of low-income college students at low-cost colleges and universities. I also co-sponsored the College Student Relief Act, H.R. 5, which was passed in the House earlier this year and which will cut student loan interest rates in half and cut the cost of college for approximately 5.5 million students and their families.
Upon return from our summer recess, Congress passed and the President signed into law the single largest investment in college financial aid in over 60 years. The College Cost Reduction and Access Act, H.R. 2669 (Public Law 110-84), invests more than $370 million in financial aid to Maryland families—at no new cost to taxpayers—while simultaneously reducing the federal budget deficit by $750 million. This landmark legislation will reduce interest rates by nearly 50 percent for nearly 70,000 Maryland students who take out need-based student loans—a savings of nearly $5,000 for the typical borrower. It also increases individual Pell Grant awards by more than $1,000 over the next five years while increasing the number of eligible students and makes a new investment of $510 million over five years in Historically Black Colleges and Universities and other minority institutions.
