[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 76 (Thursday, June 5, 1997)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1126-E1127]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




STATEMENT BY MARK OLSON, CHAMPLAIN VALLEY UNION HIGH SCHOOL, REGARDING 
                            COLLEGE FUNDING

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. BERNARD SANDERS

                               of vermont

                    in the house of representatives

                         Thursday, June 5, 1997

  Mr. SANDERS. Mr. Speaker, for the benefit of my colleagues I would 
like to have printed in the Record this statement by a high school 
student from Champlain Valley High School in Vermont, who was speaking 
at my recent town meeting on issues facing young people.

       Mr. Olson. Yes, hello. I am here today, Representative 
     Sanders and classmates, to talk about an issue that is very 
     pressing for most of us high school students, the increase in 
     college financing and the troubles around it.
       If we look at the last ten years, since 1995 actually, at 
     the money that has been put into the cost of college 
     financing it has for the most part stayed the same. 
     Government funding toward financial assistance has for the 
     most part stayed the same. I know there was in a projected 
     budget next year a $27 million increase, but that is not--for 
     a national figure that is not a large increase whereas the 
     costs of going to college since 1985 have been 2\1/2\ times 
     that of inflation which is over 10 percent.
       If you look at the people who applied for financial aid in 
     the 1985 and received the funds compared to what their 
     tuition costs were and then did a cost comparison today, the 
     comparison will be hard to make. We need to increase 
     educational funding at the equal rate of the rising college 
     expenses if we plan to send students who are talented and 
     motivated, ambitious and want to go to college. And I think 
     it is the duty of the Government to not necessarily directly 
     fund but at least provide a means so that a student who is 
     college bound in the sense, literal sense that he is able to 
     go to college.
       I know that finance is certainly a contributing factor to a 
     college decision, but in 1985 there were students who were 
     deciding to go to one university or college over another 
     because of financial reasons and there is nothing wrong with 
     that competition, but now it has become not just a persuading 
     factor, but I know there are a lot of students who apply to 
     college and are forced to go to universities or colleges 
     strictly because of unmet financial need, and I am curious 
     about how we plan to remedy that situation.
       I think that any student who has the potential to be a 
     college graduate and is unable to finance their way there 
     should not be held back, and it needs to be allowed and the 
     Federal Government is certainly involved in that as it is 
     now, but needs to allow it to happen, whether it needs to 
     come out of their budget or needs to come out of a 
     program.
       There is a difference there because pleasure and--I do not 
     want to say extra things, postsecondary school but a higher 
     education right now is not a right, it is not, but I think it 
     needs to be considered that we should not as a nation, not 
     just the Government but as a nation discriminate against the 
     less financially advantaged.
       My problem is that my kids are smarter than yours, they 
     work harder than yours, and they are being born into a life 
     that is less fortunate and it is a cycle that has been 
     repeating in this Nation for a long period of time and needs 
     to stop.
       I think that they should invest in me because I am an 
     investment that is going to pay off and I am going to pay for 
     their Social Security and I am going to undoubtedly--I mean, 
     the students who are going to go to college have put in the 
     hard work and are going to graduate are not just--I mean that 
     money is not disappearing, it is being invested.
       In the last 10 or so years a lot of these programs, like 
     corporate welfare, national defense, they have not stayed the 
     same and there have been in the last--if you look at the last 
     10 years every year there has been slight increases, 
     increases, increases, and I want to know why those same 
     moneys didn't go to VSAC Program and TRIO?
       There has to be initiative taken because while these things 
     were increasing, they were increasing with inflation so in 
     order to have the military and the corporate welfare slowly 
     increase year to year it is sort of like putting it on 
     autopilot in some ways.
       They were going up every year and that was actually 
     considered traditional, regular, accepted where it should 
     have stayed the same, so someone had to have gone out of 
     their way to make the initiative to make sure it didn't grow.


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