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Welcome back Gauchos! I hope all of you had a great summer and I offer a special welcome to all students who are new to UCSB. As many of you know, UCSB holds a special place in my heart. My husband Walter was a professor here for many years, my son graduated from the University, and I am a proud alumna of the Graduate School of Education.
I want to applaud all of you, and your families, for demonstrating the commitment and drive necessary to attend one of the nation’s premier institutions of higher learning. I know that beyond the excellent academic credentials you needed to gain acceptance to UCSB, many of you and your families also had to overcome significant financial hurdles to attend the University.
Unfortunately, the cost of a college education is more expensive than ever. In the last five years alone, college costs have grown nearly 40 percent. Sadly, every year some 200,000 students in America do not attend college because they can’t afford the high cost. Those who do attend are graduating from college with more debt than ever before. At UCSB, the average student borrower has over $15,000 in student loans when he or she graduates. These burdensome costs for students and families are making a key component of the American Dream - access to a better life through education - more and more difficult for many of our best and the brightest young minds to achieve.
Fortunately, help is on the way. Democrats in Congress have long recognized that access to an affordable quality education is one of the cornerstones of our country and critical to the future competitiveness of the United States in the larger global economy. Last fall Democrats ran on a platform of change and one of our key commitments to the American people was that we would make college more affordable and accessible for all Americans.
I am pleased to report that just last month we delivered on this promise, passing the largest increase in student aid since the 1944 G.I. Bill. This new law, the College Cost Reduction and Access Act, will boost financial aid by more than $20 billion over the next five years. To reduce the cost of loans for millions of student borrowers, the legislation will cut interest rates in half on need-based student loans, from 6.8 percent to 3.4 percent over the next four years. Once fully phased in, this will save the typical UCSB student borrower – with over $15,000 in need-based student loan debt -- $5,000 over the life of the loan. In addition to reducing the cost of student loans, the legislation will prevent student borrowers from facing unmanageable levels of federal student debt by guaranteeing that borrowers will never have to spend more than 15 percent of their yearly discretionary income on loan repayments.
This new law will also provide a long overdue increase in the maximum Pell Grant scholarship students can receive, initially raising it by $490 in 2008 and by $1,090 over the next five years. This will restore the purchasing power of the Pell Grant – raising the scholarship from $4,050 in 2006 to $5,400 by 2012, benefiting the 5.5 million students receiving Pell Grants.
The College Cost Reduction and Access Act also includes a number of other provisions that will ease the financial burden for students and families while encouraging careers in public service, like nursing and police work, that will benefit our entire community. These incentives include providing tuition assistance of $4,000 per year – for a maximum of $16,000 – for excellent undergraduate students who commit to teaching in public schools in high-poverty communities or high-need subject areas. And the new law provides loan forgiveness after 10 years of public service by military service members, first responders, law enforcement officers, nurses, public defenders, prosecutors, early childhood educators, librarians, and others.
Importantly, all of this new help for students won’t increase the national debt because we pay for it by cutting excessive federal subsidies to the college loan industry by $20.9 billion.
I hope you’ll agree with me that the College Cost Reduction and Access Act is one of the most critical new laws the 110th Congress will enact. I’m proud this legislation will soon help make college more affordable and accessible for thousands of students here at UCSB and millions of students across the country.
I look forward to joining UCSB students today at 12 Noon in front of the UCEN as we celebrate this sound investment in our students and our country’s future. Please join us if you can.
Pictured above: (center) Congresswoman Capps meets with Central Coast firefighters to discuss emergency preparedness.
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