[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 21 (Tuesday, February 25, 1997)]
[House]
[Page H598]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    MAKE COLLEGE DEGREES ACCESSIBLE

  (Mr. BLAGOJEVICH asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute.)
  Mr. BLAGOJEVICH. Mr. Speaker, in today's America the price of the 
American dream comes attached to a college tuition bill. Yet rising 
college costs are steadily making that dream a mirage for many working 
families. In all too many cases, parents face the awful choice between 
deep debt and telling their child something they could never have 
imagined: ``We'd like to send you to college, but, we're sorry, we 
simply can't afford it.''
  One of our Nation's great poets once asked, ``What happens to a dream 
deferred?'' If college tuitions remain out of reach for average 
American families, we will find the answer to that question in a lost 
generation of our children.
  Mr. Speaker, we must make the American dream a reality again before 
college degrees become the exclusive possession of the privileged. We 
must make it a reality again so college degrees can serve as pathways 
to a lifetime of opportunity.
  The best way to start is for this Congress to pass President 
Clinton's plan to increase the Pell Grant Program. We all know that a 
college degree is not a right and the American dream is not an 
entitlement, but it is our duty to make college degrees accessible, and 
by doing so we can make the American dream a reality for millions of 
people who want nothing more than a chance to get ahead.

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