[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 6]
[House]
[Page 7402]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   RISING COSTS OF COLLEGE EDUCATION

  (Mr. EMANUEL asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. EMANUEL. Mr. Speaker, today's New York Times states that middle-
class families are being edged out of the prestigious universities by 
rising costs of college education. Access to college for middle-class 
families has worsened over the last few years, another example of the 
middle-class squeeze in America.
  The greatest disservice that we have done to middle-class families in 
America is to convince them of the necessity of college education for 
their children and then priced it out of reach for their children.
  College tuition at public universities has increased by 14 percent 
last year and in certain States by 20 or 30 percent. In my home State 
of Illinois today, when a college graduate gets a diploma, on the 
backside is their first Visa bill. Every kid graduates with an average 
of $15,000 of debt.
  College tuition is running three times the rate of inflation; but 
Congress has not made the investment in higher education, and costs 
have soared. While college costs have skyrocketed, Pell grants have 
been frozen for 3 years. And in the year in which we are to reauthorize 
the Higher Education Act which deals with Pell grants and Perkins 
loans, what has Congress done?

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