Education

| Early Education | K-12 Education | College and Post-Secondary Education |

College
In July 2009, I supported a new program to make college loans more affordable to repay by allowing borrowers to establish income-based caps on their monthly loan payments and by reducing interest rates and increasing Pell Grants for qualified low- and moderate-income students.

The new benefits were part of the College Cost Reduction and Access Act, which was enacted in 2007 under the new Democratic Congress. The legislation invested more than $20 billion in college financial aid, including more than $370 million for Maryland families, at no additional cost to taxpayers. It was the single largest investment to help pay for college in more than 60 years.

There is absolutely no excuse for a young person to be denied an education because he or she can’t afford it, but more than 200,000 students miss out on college each year for this very reason. Education is a right, not a luxury, and my colleagues and I in the Congress are doing everything we can to keep the high cost of college from acting as a roadblock to our children’s futures.

The new benefits allow borrowers to participate in a new income-based repayment program that caps monthly loan payments at just 15 percent of their discretionary incomes (defined as 15 percent of what a borrower earns above 150 percent of the poverty level for the size of his or her family). After 25 years in the program, a borrower’s remaining loan balances—including interest—will be completely forgiven.

Also, new funding allocations combined with boosts from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act increased the maximum Pell Grant scholarship for the 2009-2010 school year by $600 to $5,350. Additionally, the interest rate on subsidized federal student loans will decrease from 6 percent to 5.6 percent, the second of four annual cuts to reach 3.4 percent by 2011.

These new benefits help clear the path for our nation’s neediest families to achieve the American Dream of receiving a college education. We must ensure that every child has the opportunity to make this dream a reality.

HBCUs
In 2007, along with the late Congressman John Murtha of Pennsylvania, I worked to create a landmark technology and defense research investment in Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Minority Institutions (HBCU/MI) in the the FY08 Defense Appropriations Bill, H.R. 3222. The $37 million investment more than doubled what HBCU/MI had previously received. Again, thanks in large part to Congressman Murtha, HBCU/MI will be receiving more than $67 million in investments.

For too long, our minority institutions have been overlooked in the allocation of funds that will strengthen the critical fields of technology and defense. I promised to be unrelenting in my fight to secure these funds, and I am pleased to have played a role in advancing the futures of our minority students.

The money will be allocated to the Infrastructural Support Program for Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Minority Institutions. Under this program, HBCU/MI students compete for grants and contracts through the Department of Defense (DOD). As the number of minority students eligible for these grants and contracts has continued to increase, the funds have spread increasingly thin.

I began fighting for the increased HBCU/MI funding following a meeting with officials from Morgan State University and the DOD to determine methods of improving minority contracting opportunities. The increase is expected to expand opportunities for minorities entering the fields of math, science, and engineering.

Secondary Education
I believe that knowing more about our country and where we’ve come from, can help us as we try to build a better future. Because of that belief, I introduced a bill that would expose more students to the lessons of Democracy contained in our Constitution and encourage them to get more involved in selecting the leaders of our nation.

The Constitution and Citizenship Day Act of 2009 (H.R. 3591) provides public and charter high schools with an incentive to expose students to the importance of the Constitution as well as distribute and collect voter registration forms from eligible students.

Voter turnout in our nation is embarrassingly low and the understanding of the foundation of our country is often equally poor. Young people now make up nearly a third of our electorate. We must ensure they are an educated electorate, not just in academic studies, but in the history and laws of our nation.

Constitution Day falls on September 17th of each calendar year normally without any wide public acknowledgement. The Constitution and Citizenship Day Act of 2009 provides public school districts with a financial grant award for using Constitution Day, September 17th as a day to teach students about the United States Constitution and the constitution of their state through participation. To be eligible school districts will hold assemblies, discussions, or presentations.

Early Childhood 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.

I also voted to approve the Agriculture Appropriations Conference Report which includes temporary extensions of expiring provisions of the laws governing the child nutrition programs resulting in a cost savings of $150 million. These savings will be reinvested to meet critical child nutrition needs across the country to ensure more children have year-round access to healthy and nutritious meals at school, in child care settings, and during the summer months.