[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 22 (Thursday, February 9, 2012)]
[Senate]
[Pages S502-S503]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. WYDEN:
  S. 2098. A bill to support statewide individual-level integrated 
postsecondary education data systems, and for other purposes; to the 
Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
  Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, when we went to college, usually things 
were different. Often a student took out a loan, but those loans were 
manageable, and usually there were jobs waiting. Today, too often that 
is not the case. In fact, the students today who take out loans will 
leave school weighed down, on average, with $25,000 worth of debt. They 
are going to be trying to get into a labor market where there are more 
than four unemployed Americans for every available job.
  It has been noted that for the first time student loan debt exceeds 
credit card debt, and that now totals over $100 billion. Now, clearly, 
investment in higher education is an economic imperative. Education is 
the great equalizer. It enables upward economic mobility, and it breaks 
down class structures that impair many countries' ability to grow their 
economies. A highly-skilled and educated workforce is the basis for a 
healthy economy, and it is the linchpin to our economic future.


 =========================== NOTE =========================== 

  
  On page S502, February 9, 2012, the Record reads: . . . now 
totals over $1 billion.
  
  The online Record has been corrected to read: . . . now totals 
over $100 billion.


 ========================= END NOTE ========================= 

  In every major economic decision our people make, they try to 
evaluate the value of that decision. Like prospective homeowners who 
inspect and assess the potential value of their future home, in my view 
future students should be able to comparison shop and choose a school 
and a program based on what their return on investment will be.
  Our capital markets work best when we can accurately measure the 
value of the things we choose to invest in. We saw what happens when 
this is not the case when the housing bubble burst, and our economy is 
still struggling to recover from the mortgage meltdown. In many 
instances, consumers who didn't have all the facts bought a product 
based on misleading information and fell victim to predatory lenders 
looking to make a profit off that growing bubble.
  Consumers must know what they can expect from their investments, and 
students are entitled to know the value of their education before they 
go out and borrow tens of thousands of dollars from the banks and from 
the government to finance their choices. Right now, consumers don't 
have this information, though the information exists. It is unavailable 
to students and families too often when they are making perhaps the 
most important decisions that affect their future--both their financial 
future and their career.
  That is why today I am introducing the Student Right to Know Before 
You Go Act, which would help college students get the information they 
need about their education. This proposal would ensure that future 
students and their families can make well-informed decisions by having 
access to information on their expected average annual earnings after 
graduation; rates of remedial enrollment, credit accumulation, and 
graduation; the average cost, both before and after financial aid, of 
the program, and average debt upon graduation; and, finally, the 
effects of remedial education and financial aid on credential 
attainment and a greater understanding of what student success can 
mean.
  For markets to work, there has to be good information available, and 
until now it has been extremely hard for students and families to 
collect this data in a cost-effective way while at the same time 
ensuring student privacy. However, the States, as we have seen so 
often--the Presiding Officer of the Senate and I have talked about this 
from time to time--the States have piloted their own programs and 
proved that the technology exists to enable our ability to generate and 
share this information in a way that students and consumers can use 
while at the same time protecting their privacy.

[[Page S503]]

  This technology, in my view, makes it possible to ensure a return on 
their investment for students, for parents, for policymakers, and 
taxpayers. It is going to help us create a workforce that meets the 
demands of the businesses that employ it and ensures that our workers 
can successfully compete in the global economy.
  One last point, if I might. I think it is clear that access to higher 
education is an integral part of the step ladder to success and 
particularly success for the middle class who built this country. 
Chairman Harkin, of course, the chairman of our committee who deals 
with these issues, has probably done more than any other Member in the 
Senate to put a focus on this issue and how important it is to grow the 
middle class and address the big concerns they have faced.
  Middle-class people haven't had a pay raise in a full decade. It 
seems to me as part of the agenda--and Chairman Harkin has had some 
excellent hearings on these higher education issues--one of the best 
ways we can come together on a bipartisan basis is to empower students 
and empower families to be in the best possible position to make the 
college choices that are going to pay off in the years ahead.
  That is what this legislation, the Right to Know Before You Go Act, 
would do. I hope my colleagues will consider it in the days ahead.

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