Lynn N. Rivers: “in 1935 Thomas Wolfe said, America, it is a fabulous country. It is the only country where miracles not only happen but…”

“in 1935 Thomas Wolfe said, America, it is a fabulous country. It is the only country where miracles not only happen but they happen all the time. Well, Mr. Chairman, I have lived an American miracle. I began my adult life as a mother at 18, mother of two by 21, and my husband and I struggled with the problems that ordinary people all over this country are facing. We know first hand what it is like to be in a job market without any real skills, to go without health insurance, to have a table full of bills that add up to more money than there is in the checkbook. Yet today I have both undergraduate and law degrees, and I have had the opportunity to serve my community at all levels in government. What happened? Hard work and lots of it. But hard work was not enough for me or for many other people in this country. Without the helping hand of student loans and grants, my college education would have been out of my reach.”