Education

When I travel home from Washington each weekend, I take every opportunity I can to speak to high school students from all across the district.  My message to them is: education is the cornerstone to building your future and our nation’s prosperity.  For our children and grandchildren to be able to compete for tomorrow’s jobs, they need the skills and knowledge that will enable them to compete.

We must make a national commitment to education by strengthening our schools, making sure our teachers are qualified, rewarded and supported, reducing class size, modernizing our classrooms, and providing vocational and technical educational opportunities.  One of the ways we can start is by reforming federal education policy to provide accountability, flexibility and increased funding.  Federal policies should take advantage of America’s true creative spirit to equip our next generation with the tools they need to succeed in a competitive international environment.

But we can’t stop at kindergarten through 12^th grade education. We must make higher education more affordable. Tuition and fees at four-year public universities have risen 41 percent since 2001, and interest rates on loans have also increased.  Skyrocketing costs should not put a college diploma out of reach.  That’s why I’ve worked to expand access to college education by passing the largest investment in college aid since the G.I. Bill in 1944, increasing Pell Grants and other federal college loan limits as well as cutting interest rates on subsidized student loans.

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