[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 109 (Tuesday, August 9, 1994)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: August 9, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                  SAVING FOR OUR CHILDREN'S EDUCATION

                                 ______


                       HON. THOMAS J. BARLOW III

                              of kentucky

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, August 9, 1994

  Mr. BARLOW. Mr. Speaker, America's colleges and universities, our 
institutions of higher learning, are vital to maintaining the 
intellectual strength of the United States in the decades ahead. In 
recent decades, we have come to finance the tuitions of our students in 
our institutions of higher learning more and more through loans and 
grants. Many of these loans have been backed by Federal guarantees and 
with troubling statistics of rising defaults on these loans, the direct 
budget costs to taxpayers have been steadily increasing.
  We, as a nation, are moving to reduce the heavy deficits in our 
national accounts that have been pushing the national debt higher and 
higher every year. In coming years every Federal expense account will 
be put under continuing pressure to reduce outlays. State treasuries, 
which State universities look to for the largest portion of their 
budgets, are feeling the effects of reductions in Federal education 
allocations such as cutbacks in Pell grants. In my State of Kentucky 
alone, 50,000 applications for student financial aid were turned down 
last year because Federal money for educational assistance simply was 
not available. I believe the bill that I have introduced, H.R. 3722, 
now cosponsored by eight Members of the House, addresses remedies for 
the growing limitations of Federal aid in meeting higher education 
costs for our students.
  For all national spending accounts, it is time to be moving our 
Nation from the borrowing side of the ledger to the investment side of 
the ledger. The best investors and guides for our children as they map 
out their future are parents, grandparents, and relatives--their 
families. The legislation that I have introduced encourages parents and 
grandparents to be saving ahead for children's education. I hope this 
legislation will continue to secure bipartisan support from Members of 
Congress.
  Currently, 34 States administer post-secondary educational savings 
programs for their residents seeking to finance their children's 
education. We must support States, educational institutions, and the 
broadening of opportunities for our children by developing at the 
Federal level an Individual Retirement Account-type approach to 
education in conjunction with State educational savings agencies. It is 
vital that we take firm and positive steps toward increasing 
educational opportunities for our youth in coming decades. We will be 
serving our children, our families and our Nation.

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