[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 1]
[House]
[Page 1386]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      PROTECTING HIGHER EDUCATION

  (Ms. LORETTA SANCHEZ of California asked and was given permission to 
address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. LORETTA SANCHEZ of California. Madam Speaker, as we look for ways 
to put our economy back on track, we have to be mindful of the quality 
of higher education that we are providing our future generations. I 
agree that difficult decisions must be made in order to guarantee this 
country's economic prosperity, but access to higher education should 
not be negotiable.
  In California, we have seen tuition increased by as much as 10 
percent on higher education, and Governor Brown has proposed a $1.4 
billion cut to higher education funding. We argue that sensible 
solutions to our economic difficulties are essential to prevent this 
burden from being passed on to the next generation. But let's look 
around. Our next generation is here. It is at higher education. 
Students are dropping out of colleges not because their GPA is too low, 
but because they can't afford the higher tuition costs.
  Our future doctors, our engineers, our politicians, our educators, 
this is what we are talking about. We cannot rebuild our economy when 
we do so at the expense of our future generations and their American 
Dream.

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