[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 58 (Wednesday, March 29, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H3885-H3886]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         PROPOSED CUTS TO STUDENT AID THREATEN AMERICA'S FUTURE

  (Mr. BALDACCI asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
   [[Page H3886]] Mr. BALDACCI. Mr. Speaker, our colleagues on the 
Republican side are proposing to close the door to higher education for 
middle-income students in order to pay for a capital gains tax cut. 
Four major student aid programs--subsidized Stafford loans, work study 
programs, supplemental education opportunity grants and Perkins loans--
are targeted for reduction or elimination.
  Last weekend, I met with a group of college students in Maine. They 
were shocked and disappointed to learn of this proposal. In Maine, 
nearly 80 percent of all students attending the public university 
receive assistance from one or more of the targeted programs.
  For the vast majority of these students, eliminating this aid will 
mean that attending college will become a dream turning bleak. Children 
of working families simply do not have the financial resources on their 
own to pay for higher education.
  Who suffers as a result of this plan? Not just working-class 
families, but all Americans. Our country desperately needs an educated 
work force. Today's students are tomorrow's leaders. We cannot afford 
to deny access to education to all but the most privileged. We must 
defeat this ill-considered plan, and open education up to all.

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