Barbara Mikulski: “I can answer that, Senator, because we see it every day in the State of Maryland, which has a profile not unlike the…”

“I can answer that, Senator, because we see it every day in the State of Maryland, which has a profile not unlike the State of Massachusetts. We have schools in the Baltimore-Washington corridor that are desperately, as of now, in getting ready for the school year, recruiting people in math and science, both at elementary and high school. We also have a robust science program in the private sector. First of all, we have defense jobs, we have biotech jobs. If you are working as that science teacher at $38,000, with this big debt, you can go to work in pretty interesting private sector jobs, some under Government contract. As we like to say, Government work is often getting contracts with the private sector. They are going to walk out and they are going to take the $70,000, the $80,000 or the $100,000, not because of the money, they want to pay down their debt and they want what everyone else wants, the ability to have a family, buy a home. You know, a starter home now in our community is $400,000. That is starter-- starter. Can you imagine that? So, of course, they are going to make those choices, or, if they do come, they stay a very short time, a very short time. So we think that this is a good way to get them into teaching and get them to stay in teaching. We believe that once they come, and once they stay a few years, they will stay for a while, particularly if we help them follow their dream, while they are helping these other young people to get ready to follow theirs.”