Political Quotes

“Mr. President, let me thank Senator Stabenow for organizing this time to underscore the importance of a fair shot for everyone to afford a college education. Earlier this month Senator Mikulski and I met with students. We met with students from the University of Maryland Baltimore County. We met with students from Bowie State College. We sat around a table and listened to their stories. Bowie State College is one of our historically Black colleges and universities in America with fairly reasonable tuition costs--much lower than most State colleges and certainly a lot lower than private schools. So Senator Mikulski and I were shocked to find that the average amount of debt today at a State college such as Bowie is over $27,000 for a graduating senior. That affects their decisions. We were there during the first week of school and we talked to the president, and the president said he still doesn't know the enrollment this year because there are a lot of students who have preenrolled, but until they have paid their costs, they are not fully enrolled, and a lot aren't fully enrolled because they didn't know how to pay for their costs. We also heard from students who said they showed up for class and several of the students didn't even have textbooks because they couldn't afford to buy their textbooks. Then we heard from students who said: Look, it is difficult enough to afford a 4-year college education, but the average length of time to get a degree was 6 years. Why?…”