Sherrod Brown: “during the last year I have listened to a lot of things Ohioans have said, have told me, as I have traveled from…”

“during the last year I have listened to a lot of things Ohioans have said, have told me, as I have traveled from Cleveland to Portsmouth, and from Toledo to Cincinnati and from Youngstown to Lima and Bryan. I have heard repeatedly, particularly middle class and working families talk about lost opportunity, that they do not have the same opportunity for wage increases, do not have the same opportunity to join a union, do not have the same opportunity to send their kids to college. Earlier today, we passed legislation--overwhelmingly, bipartisanly-- finally, to raise Pell grants to increase the opportunity for young people to go to school. Pell grants had not been increased in years and years and years. We know for students in Ohio, for example, the cost of a public education at a 4-year public school has gone up, in the last 5 years, 53 percent. The cost of a private education at a 4-year private school has gone up 28 percent. Yet the average wage in Ohio only went up 3 percent. So we have private education going up this much, public education going up this much, and wages increasing only slightly. That is why the legislation the Senate passed earlier and legislation the House is working on absolutely will matter to provide opportunity for middle-class kids.”