Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, today higher education is a virtual necessity, but there is a tremendous difficulty in achieving that necessity, and that is the significantly increased cost of higher education. If my colleagues go back over either a 10-year or a 20-year period, they will see that the costs of higher education have increased at both public and private colleges and universities at a rate of approximately two to three times that of the rate of inflation. If my colleagues look at the increase in the cost of higher education and the increase in median income, they will see that higher education costs have again increased at about two to three times the increase in the median income. So how can individuals afford a higher education? They cannot afford to go to school; they cannot afford not to go to school. They are in a bind. What happens? More and more often, students are borrowing money, they are going into deep debt, and it is not unusual today for a college student to graduate with a minimum of $10,000 in personal indebtedness, but very, very frequently considerably more: $20, $30, $40, $50,000. This imposes a huge burden on their entire future.”