[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 141 (Tuesday, September 12, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1755-E1756]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


          THE REPUBLICANS' CUTS IN STUDENT LOANS AND EDUCATION

                                 ______


                          HON. CARDISS COLLINS

                              of illinois

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, September 12, 1995
  Mrs. COLLINS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, this week, all across the 7th 
Congressional District in Illinois, children, teenagers and young 
people are beginning their new school year and buckling down for a year 
of hard work and study.
  Unfortunately, the GOP budget proposals will be randomly expelling 
young people from education programs across the Chicago metropolitan 
area. Frankly, I'd like to make the Republicans supporting these 
proposals sit in the corner with a dunce cap on their heads or give 
them an F for unfairness.
  It is evidently to the majority of Americans across the country that 
spending Federal funds on education is a smart investment. Despite 
widespread support for funding for education, the Republicans are 
slashing education funding to dangerously low levels. In Illinois' 7th 
Congressional District, these cuts will hit especially hard and will 
cause thousands of students to lose access to critical educational 
opportunities and services.
  From pre-school through graduate school, all students are targets of 
the Gingrich-Republican's budget cuts. The Republicans are proposing 
cutting a whopping $45 billion from education programs over the next 7 
years, plus eliminating the U.S. Department of Education, to pay for 
tax breaks for the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans.
  For young children, these cuts will eliminate nearly 50,000 Head 
Start children from the successful and popular Head Start Program. Ms. 
Sherry West, a former Head Start parent and mother of four children 
from the 7th Congressional District, visited Washington, DC last month 
to describe exactly how devastating these cuts will be.
  The Republicans in the House of Representatives have already voted to 
eliminate the Federal school lunch program that has guaranteed needy 
children a decent meal since they were established by Harry Truman in 
1946. Instead, the Gingrich-Republicans want to establish a block grant 
with no guarantee that hungry children will be fed during a recession 
or other economic downturn and no requirements that nutritional 
standards be met. When I visited the Henry Suder Elementary School in 
my District earlier this year, I saw how directly these cuts will 
impact 488 of the school's 501 students who participate in the Federal 
nutrition program.
  The Summer Youth Employment program that provided more than 10,000 
young people in Chicago summer jobs and an opportunity to learn useful 
job skills last year is also eliminated completely. Funding for 
children with disabilities is cut by 64 percent leaving many of these 
children without the resources that are needed to help them face their 
extraordinary obstacles and challenges.
  In Chicago alone, education services will be eliminated for more than 
25,000 students and cause as many as 1,000 teachers to be laid off. The 
city of Chicago will lose more than $41 million for special and 
vocational education, dropout prevention, job training, school building 
repairs, drug free school programs and numerous other educational 
programs.
  Cuts for higher education will also be devastating. Currently, the 
vast majority of students in my congressional district can only afford 
to attend college or graduate school by taking out enormous loans that 
they must pay back for a decade after finishing school.
  Now, with a decrease of $520 million in the Pell Grant Program, $156 
million in the Federal Perkins Loans Program and more than $700 million 
in total student financial assistance, even fewer of my constituents 
will be able to afford to attend college. The cost of student loans is 
expected to increase by $2,000 for undergraduate students and between 
$6,000 and $38,000 for graduate students under the Republicans' plan. 
This is not just pocket change to most young people and will prevent 
many of them from getting a college degree.
  The students in my District have some advice for the Republicans--
stop acting like a 

[[Page E 1756]]
schoolyard bully and start making smart investments in America's future 
by funding education opportunities for everyone.


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