Susan Davis

The Public Service Loan Forgiveness program has been an important recruitment and retention tool for the military to compete with the civilian sector.

I encourage my colleagues in Congress, from both sides of the aisle, to come together today and offer positive solutions.

So, our goal here today is to collectively make it easier for the public servants of this country to take advantage of a promise made to them back in 2007.

We want to solve this problem and that is why we are delighted that you all are here before us today.

We are here to look for answers on how we can better support the thousands of public servants who support all of us every day.

PSLF is a popular bipartisan program that is critical for ensuring communities everywhere in the United States have access to education, healthcare, and other fundamental services.

I encourage my colleagues in Congress from both sides of the aisle to come together today and offer positive solutions.

How could we move some of those reforms into being something that is helpful in schools?

I am wondering where you all feel this comes in and whether you believe...arming teachers is part of the solution.

One of the issues that hasn't come up is actually gun violence and the impact that has on students.

I think this is a politically well-informed and inspirational panel today.

It is critically important that we figure out a way to deal with these issues.

We want to be sure that we are educating our students, of course, for success, preparing and retaining the highest quality teacher workforce.

The gap between teacher wages and the wages of other college graduates is wider than it's ever been.

For decades, Congress has recognized its responsibility to eliminate cost barriers to serving as a teacher, particularly regarding student loans.

We also know that professional training for teachers and school leaders can only go so far without support to help educators overcome the significant cost barriers through entering and staying in the profession.

As a nation, we must do better.

You know, in this committee we talk a lot about student debt and certainly that is something that is weighing in this country with about $1.5 trillion in student debt having incredible consequences not only in terms of student's ability to…

This gap is particularly devastating for teachers of color, who already shoulder disproportionately more student debt than their white peers.

We just have to do more.

Despite the clear benefits of strong school leadership for both teachers and students, school leader preparation receives little attention compared to teacher preparation.

I am pleased that we are having today's hearing on how to best support our educators and provide our children with high-quality classroom and school instruction.

But we also know that professional training for teachers and school leaders can only go so far without support to help educators overcome the significant cost barriers to entering and staying in the profession.

Today, we are not only discussing the need to invest in teacher preparation, but also the need to invest in school leader preparation.

Today, we look forward to learning more about the apprenticeship systems of Australia, Germany, and Switzerland.