[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 1]
[House]
[Page 333]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   FUNDING COLLEGE EDUCATION FOR ALL

  (Mr. COHEN asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, today the President will be speaking in 
Knoxville, Tennessee, on extending college educations to Americans.
  I share with the President the goal of giving more Americans the 
opportunity to go to college, but I would submit to him he should not 
be holding up the Tennessee Promise plan in Tennessee as an example. He 
should be holding up the Tennessee HOPE Lottery Scholarship program, 
which I worked 20 years to achieve in Tennessee and has provided over 
$3 billion to education, $250 million a year.
  Scholarship programs such as the President is talking about should 
have standards for students in high school to achieve to get a 
scholarship. They should have strong standards in college to maintain 
them. They should be in addition to Pell grants and in addition to 
other scholarships to pay for books and tuition.
  The Promise plan takes from middle class and lower income students 
and gives to higher income students, doesn't have standards in high 
school to get the scholarship, and doesn't have high standards to keep 
it. It is a last dollar scholarship.
  The President's plan should be more like the Tennessee HOPE Lottery 
Scholarship: assure students have an incentive in high school to get it 
and incentives to keep it with high grade standards, and it shouldn't 
go to for-profit schools, for that is an invitation to abuse.
  I thank the President for his commitment, but I think he has the 
wrong program as his model.

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