Candidate Review

 

Higher Education

 

Since many of my readers are likely to be college students, here are the Democratic Candidate's positions on Higher Education.

General Wesley Clark

 

This is from a speech given on December 10th, 2003, coincidentally enough in New Castle, New Hampshire. Funny how the candidates seem to talk so often in New Hampshire and Iowa.

"A college education is the foundation of the American dream. And it pays off. Not just in knowledge, but in dollars. Studies show that for each additional year of higher you get, you earn 5 to 15 percent more. That's more than the average returns on stocks and bonds.

So today, we should be making it easier-not harder-for our kids to get the education they need to succeed in the 21st century economy.

Unfortunately, too many young people don't even consider going to college because it's just too expensive.

. . . My plan has four parts.

First, we will provide $6,000 a year for the first two years of college to any student whose family earns $100,000 or less. That's double the federal grant students currently get -- and it covers more than 100 percent of the tuition and fees for the average four-year public university.

Second, we've got to make it easier for student to apply for financial aid. I'll streamline the application process, so students only have to fill out one form for Pell Grants and Hope Scholarships.

This will make it much easier for more students to get the aid they need.

Third, we have to help cash-starved states with tuition costs. Right now, President Bush's tax cuts have put states in the red, forcing them to raise tuition prices just to stay afloat. That's why state tuition increases are twice as high as private ones.

My plan sends state and local governments $40 billion to help fix their fiscal crises, and get tuition costs under control.

Finally, my plan helps working families save for college by giving tax credits to working families, those who have the hardest time putting money away."

 

Former Governor Howard Dean

 

Howard Dean revealed his plans for higher education at a speech at Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire on November 13, 2003.

Today’s higher education system simply doesn’t work because our political process has stopped working for all Americans.

To pay for his reckless tax cuts, President Bush administration had to cut Pell Grant funding for 84,000 students. Hundreds of thousands of students will be getting smaller grants. It under-funded financial aid by $1.4 billion. And the administration cut funding for AmeriCorps, giving students even fewer opportunities to pay for higher education.

When he signed the Higher Education Act of 1965, Lyndon Johnson said, “A high school senior anywhere in this great land of ours can apply to any college or university in any one of the 50 states and not be turned away because their family is poor.”

But that vision is far from fulfilled. If we stay on our present course, we’ll soon reach a point where only the wealthiest will be able to afford college.

. . . That is why I am proposing a new initiative that I’m calling the College Commitment to give every child the opportunity to go to college.

We will start early with a fundamental promise to every 8th grade student:

If you agree to prepare for college and graduate from high school, we’ll guarantee that you will have access to $10,000 a year in grants and loans for college.

After you graduate, you’ll never have to pay more than 10% of your income on loan repayment.

And by the end of 10 years of work, your loans will be paid in full.

Those students who enter public service will get an even better deal. If you become a teacher, a nurse, a police officer, a firefighter, or go into another high-need public service field, you’ll never spend more than 7 percent of your income on loan payments. I’m calling that the “Public Service Corps.”

Students who aren’t choosing a public service career because they’re worried about paying off their loans will now be able to follow their dreams after college. And we’ll address the pending shortages in nursing and teaching by giving kids an incentive to enter these fields. "

 

Senator John Edwards

 

John Edwards gave this speech at a state that is not New Hampshire, but is in fact Maryland (College Park) on November 21, 2002.

" But preparing young people for college won't make a difference if they can't afford to go. Student aid has steadily eroded over the past two decades. Students and their families are paying an ever-higher share of college costs and student loan debts are skyrocketing. States are trying to help, but in these hard times they're falling behind.

Research shows that because tuitions are so high and students are expected to take on so much debt to pay for college, many kids who ought to go and want to go don't even try, because they believe they can't afford it.

So today I am offering a simple proposal that I call College for Everyone. We are going to provide states with the resources to offer a new deal to students: If you are willing to take responsibility for your education, the first year of tuition at every community college and public university in your state is free.

Providing a free year of college tuition will eliminate the sticker shock that scares off so many kids. It will simplify a financial aid process now so complex that getting a student loan can be tougher than getting a small business loan. After students get through that first year, which is the toughest, they'll know financial aid is available, they'll know student loans are an investment worth making, and they'll have access to people who can help them pursue both. Perhaps more important, if they work hard, they'll know they can succeed in college.

But if we're going to make this deal with students, we're going to have to ask something from them in return. We'll say to students: You'll have to come to college academically prepared, and finish the college prep track in high school. You'll have to work hard in school, pass your courses, and stay out of trouble. You'll have to take responsibility for your community and your own education, by spending an average of 10 hours a week in work-study, service to your community or your school, or a part-time job. The research shows that part-time work on campus helps students perform better in college. For myself, there was no way I was going to waste my education when I was paying for it by doing things like unloading trucks and working on road crews.

We also need to make sure College for Everyone expands opportunities for students who attend private universities.

We should strengthen the foundation of student aid, the Pell Grant, whose steady erosion in value over the last two decades is a national embarrassment. And we should consolidate and simplify the messy array of education tax credits, each with its own rules, its own requirements, and its own definitions. Instead, we should have a single education credit with a single set of definitions that every family can understand and use.

Finally, we should tap the patriotism and determination of America's youth by creating four-year scholarships for students who commit to working for five years after college to address America's homeland security needs. Our country still has extraordinary safety needs that are not being met and that energetic and patriotic young people can meet better than anyone else.

Even as we work to open the doors of college to everyone, some young people are going to choose careers that don't require a college degree. In our society, teachers and doctors aren't the only people who do essential work; so do mechanics and factory workers. We have to value these workers and their work and make sure they are prepared to compete and succeed in this century.

Some of the nation's fastest-growing occupations are in fields like health care, computer technology, hospitality, and public safety, where you don't need a college degree to land a good job. Today young people get training for these jobs wherever and however they an but their opportunities are limited, especially if they live in rural or low-income communities.

We need to expand these training opportunities, strengthen partnerships between high schools and community colleges, and modernize our vocational high schools so students get the training they need for the good jobs where skilled workers are in short supply today. These investments are ambitious, but they are critical. "

 

Representative Dick Gephardt

 

Once again I face the problem that the most accesible words on the the Dick Gephardt Website are those of the campaign staffer who runs the website. So we present the Dick Gephards program for higher education and Teacher Corps from thew view point of one of his staffers.

"That is why, as president, Dick Gephardt will increase the accessibility and affordability of college for all Americans. As a first step, he will work to protect affirmative action programs that ensure access to higher education for well-qualified, but disadvantaged students. President Gephardt will also expand federal grant and loan programs to keep up with the rising costs of college tuition, increasing the eligibility for financial aid among middle-class families and making the first $10,000 of higher education costs tax-deductible."

and

"As we value our military by investing in the training of its soldiers through invaluable programs such as the ROTC, so must we value our teachers by investing in a similar effort to train and prepare them for the classroom.

A Gephardt Administration will launch a Teacher Corps, with the goal of recruiting two and a half million new teachers by the end of the decade. Much like the ROTC, participants in the Teachers Corps will receive scholarship assistance in return for their commitment to teach for five years and to be held to high standards of performance.

Obviously the Teacher Corp idea has implications on elementary education as well, but it is presented here for its impact on those who want to go to college on the Government Dime.

 

Senator John Kerry

 

Once again I must content myself with an anonymous staffer's depiction of Senator Kerry's Plan. On the other hand, I like how this staffer ties the revenue problems facing states to peoples lives.

"John Kerry’s “Service for College” initiative will offer Americans the chance to earn the equivalent of their state's four-year public college tuition in exchange for two years of service. Kerry will set a goal within the next decade of enlisting 500,000 young people a year in Service for College."

and

"The Bush economic policies have left states with nearly $90 billion in budget deficits, and have forced cuts to higher education budgets, resulting in higher tuition, increased class sizes, and cuts to counseling, tutoring, and remedial coursework. Rising tuitions often mean that students have to drop out and others cannot afford to come. As part of his “State Tax Relief and Education Fund” Kerry will help states struggling to bridge deficits resulting from Bush’s economic policies with $50 billion to stop the education cuts and tuition increases across the country. The additional resources Kerry is proposing will be conditioned on better and smarter use of the higher education money. Kerry believes that colleges and universities should work to make the higher education system more efficient, without sacrificing quality, by streamlining services and reducing duplication. For example, if state colleges and universities banded together to make bulk purchases of things such as health care for employees, energy, supplies, and other services it would save millions of dollars annually."

 

Senator Dennis Kucinich

 

This is from a speech to the Urban League, National Committee Pittsburgh, July 28, 2003.

"Finally, on the issue of college. Do you know that there are 12 million young Americans who attend public institutions, colleges, and universities. They pay an average of four thousand dollars a year. Now, you multiply that, it’s 48 billion dollars a year.

This take cut of the President’s amount to 155 billion dollars a year. For less than a third of the present tax cut you could have universal college for our young people. It’s time to make education a priority.

One final word. When I walk up to vote every day in the House of Representatives, there is a statue of a woman whose arm is outstretched, and she’s protecting a child who is blissfully sitting on top of a pile of books. And the title of that statue is called, “Peace Protecting Genius.”

Not with nuclear arms, but with the arms of love is the child, Genius, protected. We need to work for peace. And as we do that, that is the path to restoring this country to a new era where we have health care for all, education for all, jobs for all, and hope for all."

 

Senator Joe Lieberman

 

Here are comments by a Lieberman staffer, as previously discussed.

"Joe Lieberman believes that to honor the basic promise of equal opportunity, we have an obligation to confront this problem with clear and honest answers. That means helping more disadvantaged students enter college in the first place--and setting high standards and providing strong support so that they graduate on time with a degree.

Joe Lieberman's College Opportunity Plan sets a bold goal: that by the year 2020, at least 90 percent of the students with a high school degree go on to the military, college, or vocational school; and that at least 90 percent of the students who start college finish with a bachelor's degree within six years or an associate's degree within three years.

Lieberman's blueprint for getting there is built on three pillars: resources to bring college within the reach of all Americans, improving the readiness of students for postsecondary education, and a new focus on results to ensure that students are equipped to get and keep the new jobs of the future."