Political Quotes

“I thank my colleague, Ms. Edwards, for having this conversation this evening and to say how important it is for me and the residents of my State, the State of Rhode Island. Rhode Island is, of course, the home of the great Senator Claiborne Pell after whom the Pell Grants were named for his great work in ensuring there was access to affordable higher education. There was a recent report that was done that said from the year 2008 to 2018, it's estimated that there will be 47 million job openings created, and more than 30 million of these jobs will require at least some level of postsecondary education. So this is really about thinking about the future of the economy of our country and our ability to meet the demands of the new economy of the 21st century. And it's an economic imperative for families that they have the ability to access higher education and to do it in an affordable way. In my State, this is particularly important where we have very high unemployment. Young adults in 2010 from the ages from 16 24, there is an unemployment rate in Rhode Island of nearly 27 percent, and in 2011, at 22 percent for that same age group. That's between 16,000 and 17,000 young adults without the ability to find work in those 2 years. This is a very important issue.…”