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School counselors can make a significant difference in the lives of students. However, many students have limited to no access to a school counselor, as student-to-counselor ratios exceed 450:1 nationally. In some states, that ratio climbs as high as 900:1. HR 614 would provide funding for schools to hire more school counselors. See here for more information about student-to-counselor ratios in your state and district.
The Pell Grant program is the nation’s foundational investment in higher education. Pell Grants help nearly 7 million low-and moderate-income students—40% of undergraduates at U.S. colleges and universities— attend and complete college annually. Students from all 50 states and all corners of the country—from rural areas to cities to everywhere in between—rely on the Pell Grant program to pursue their college aspirations and achieve a brighter future. Nearly 70% of Pell Grant dollars go to students with a family income below $30,000 and nearly 90% to students with a family income below $50,000. Pell Grants are especially critical for students of color, with nearly 60% of Black students, and roughly half of American Indian or Alaska Native students and Hispanic students receiving a Pell Grant each year. The share of college costs covered by the Pell Grant is at an all-time low. Nearly 50 years ago, the maximum grant covered more than three-quarters of the cost of attending a four-year public college. After decades of state budget cuts that drove up tuition, combined with flat household incomes over the same period, Pell Grants now cover less than one-third of those costs. Unsurprisingly, Pell Grant recipients continue to bear disproportionate student debt burdens. Pell Grant recipients today are nearly twice as likely as other students to have student loans. Those who do borrow graduate with over $4,500 more debt than their higher-income peers.
Doubling the maximum Pell Grant is a sound investment that will boost economic mobility. In 2018, the median earnings of bachelor’s degree recipients with no advanced degree working full time were $24,900 higher than those of high school graduates. Bachelor’s degree recipients paid an estimated $7,100 more in taxes and took home $17,800 more in after-tax income than high school graduates. Doubling the maximum Pell Grant has bipartisan support.
SUPPORT THE “HISPANIC EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES AND EMPOWERMENT (HERE)” ACT
In 2020, there were 62.1 million Hispanics in the U.S, comprising nearly 20 percent of the population. According to Census Bureau projections, there will be 111 million Hispanics living in the U.S in 2060. Despite Hispanic population growth, the current education system has failed to sufficiently support Hispanic college completion. At four-year institutions, Hispanic students are 12 percent less likely to graduate than their white peers. If this education gap persists, there will not be enough educated workers to fill the jobs left by retiring baby boomers, and household incomes for all Americans. To help alleviate this problem, U.S. Representative Joaquin Castro (TX-20) and U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (CA) introduced the Hispanic Educational Resources and Empowerment Act (HERE) Act, which will provide federal funding to facilitate partnerships between school districts and universities serving large numbers of Hispanic/Latino students.
The “DREAM Act” provides a path to citizenship for students who were brought to this country as minors and who have completed their high school education. A number of bills, including HR 1177, S 348, and S 264, have been introduced in 2021 to address this issue. For decades, educators and national organizations have supported the DREAM Act to assist the tens of thousands of undocumented students who graduate from American high schools each year, yet are left with few, if any, postsecondary educational options because of an outdated and confusing provision in existing immigration law. As Justice William Brennan concluded in the landmark Plyler v. Doe case that granted undocumented students access to K-12 public education, “[W]hatever savings might be achieved by denying these children an education, they are wholly insubstantial in light of the costs involved to these children, the State, and the Nation.”
This legislation provides critical protections for students and taxpayers against waste, fraud, and abuse at the hands of predatory colleges that seek to convert to non-profit status without a meaningful change in their operations. According to The Century Foundation, “Three core findings stand out in the new report. First, when ownership seeks to preserve some sort of insider role with the nonprofit school, conversions can become compromised, causing leadership and resources to be diverted from the college’s educational mission and instead steered into growing the former owner’s bank account. Of the nearly sixty conversions that GAO examined, insiders continued to play a role in the newly established nonprofit in roughly one-third. The GAO found that, among converted schools, those in which an insider continued to play a role account for the vast majority of federal aid, have worse financial performance, and risk improperly channeling profits to those insiders. Second, IRS tax-exempt status is wholly inadequate for assessing whether a school is actually nonprofit in the way it is operating. And third, neither the IRS nor the Department of Education are doing enough to address the problem.”
SUPPORT THE “PROTECT OUR STUDENTS AND TAXPAYERS (POST)” ACT
For years, predatory colleges have taken advantage of a loophole in federal law to exploit Veterans and active duty service members, enrolling them through high-pressure, misleading sales tactics and leaving them with little in the way of an education but often tens of thousands of dollars of student debt. The Protect Our Students and Taxpayers (POST) Act would close that loophole, ensuring that postsecondary institutions do not simply target Veterans and servicemembers for their GI Bill and Department of Defense Tuition Assistance benefits.
