Every year three is 600,0000 folks that should be graduating and they would have graduated but instead they are coming out of incarceration.

The institutions serving the largest share of low income students and students of color are often the same institutions that struggle to provide the support students need because they are chronically underfunded.

If we aren't able to get students of color and low income students to that baccalaureate level, it's exacerbating the racial and economic inequality in our country.

Our Nation spends $5 billion less educating students of color in the higher ed system than it does White students.

The importance of today's hearing cannot be overstated.

One of my life's missions has been to put up a permanent roadblock on the destructive and demoralizing path that has entrapped too many boys and young men of color and other at risk youth.

We also need to remove the barriers to employment for those with arrest records and other criminal backgrounds.

We heard how the Protecting the Right to Organize Act can safeguard the fundamental human rights to organize a union.

As our witnesses have made clear, Congress must enact the PRO Act to deter violations of workers' rights and reverse decades of wage stagnation and income inequality.

Today we will evaluate how provisions in the PRO Act would deter employers from violating workers' rights to form unions.

We heard from Mr. Trumka how the PRO Act can prevent abuse of workers' rights through penalties and holding coercive captive audience meetings, making people sit and not move.