[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 26 (Thursday, March 12, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Page S1905]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           AMERICAN STUDENT ASSOCIATION OF COMMUNITY COLLEGES

 Mr. WELLSTONE. Mr. President, it was my pleasure this week to 
address the 15th annual Washington conference of the American Student 
Association of Community Colleges. I ask to have printed in the Record 
the students' statement of priorities for the reauthorization of the 
Higher Education Act.
  The statement follows:

                           Statement Of ASAAC

       As a voice of the nation's largest post-secondary student 
     body, the American Student Association of Community Colleges 
     thanks the Congress for last year's 12 percent increase in 
     the Pell Grant, and for extending employee educational 
     assistance (tax code section 127) into the new century. Both 
     programs are proven cornerstones of advanced work force 
     training, which grows steadily in importance to American 
     economic competitiveness. To ensure a high standard of 
     living, a work force with cutting-edge skills will always be 
     essential.
       More and more Americans look to their community colleges 
     for such skills. Employers who offer tuition assistance 
     report that community colleges are the most frequent choice 
     of employees using this training incentive. With this in 
     mind, ASACC urges the House and Senate to enact these 
     priorities in the reauthorization of the Higher Education 
     Act:
       --The $5,000 Pell Grant maximum advocated by Senator Paul 
     Wellstone and Congressman James P. McGovern. More than ever, 
     the Pell Grant is the backbone of post-secondary access for 
     low-income students. Because community colleges serve the 
     highest low-income enrollment, their students benefit least 
     from Hope scholarships and the other educational tax 
     incentives enacted last year.
       --The 5,500 Income Protection Allowance for independent 
     students, as provided in the House subcommittee draft of the 
     HEA, giving the independent students equal footing with 
     dependent students in award computation.
       --The promise of Pell Grants as early as the sixth grade to 
     students in impoverished communities who finish high school, 
     as proposed by Congressman Chaka Fattah in H.R. 777.
       --The provision of child-care assistance to colleges 
     serving the larger Pell Grant enrollments, as proposed by 
     Senators Christopher Dodd, Edward Kennedy, and Olympia Snowe 
     in S. 1151. The bill recognizes that ``students who are 
     parents and receive campus-based child care are more likely 
     to remain in school, and to graduate more rapidly . . . than 
     students who are parents (without) campus based child care. 
     For parents juggling family, school and employment, the 
     convenience of child care is crucial. A college could become 
     eligible for successive three-year grants under the bill, if 
     Pell Grants totaled $1 million or more in the preceding 
     fiscal year. ASACC urges that small colleges whose yearly 
     Pell total is under $1 million also be made eligible for such 
     grant, provided half or more of their eligible students are 
     receiving Pell Grants. We do not want to see small rural 
     colleges arbitrarily excluded from the program.

  Mr. WELLSTONE. It is refreshing to meet a student group with its 
legislative message so clearly focused. As the consumer voice of higher 
education's largest sector, the community college students, nearly 12 
million strong in annualized enrollment, represent, in a very large 
degree, the economic future of our nation and our workforce. I urge my 
colleagues to heed their message.

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