D.C. Tuition Bill On its Way To House Floor - March 09, 2006
D.C. TUITION BILL IN ITS WAY TO HOUSE FLOOR
March 9, 2006
Washington, DC—Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today announced that the Government Reform Committee passed and sent to the floor her bill to reauthorize H.R. 4855, the District of Columbia College Access Act. The bill, sponsored by Norton and Committee Chairman Tom Davis (R-VA), assures the continued existence of the successful and popular D.C. Tuition Assistance Grant Program (DCTAG). DCTAG acts as a substitute for an expanded university system for the District, which unlike every state, has no system of several colleges and universities, but only one open-admissions state university. The program allows D.C. students to attend public colleges or universities in the United States at low in-state tuition rates or to receive $2,500 annually to attend certain private colleges and universities in the region or private Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) throughout the country.
In her opening statement today, Norton said that TAG is credited with the 35 percent increase in D.C. students attending college, while the rate of growth elsewhere in the country has seriously lagged, and with stemming the outflow of residents that crippled the city for 30 years. She said that the President has shown his confidence in the program by including in his FY 07 budget for DCTAG an increase of almost $2 million over last year’s funding. “However, we are working to make sure that issues raised in the Senate about the cost of providing equal higher education opportunities for District residents do not undercut the record pace at which our young people are going to college and coming back home to help expand our economy.”
The Congresswoman’s full committee statement follows.
Mr. Chairman, I very much appreciate your bringing the D.C. College Access Act forward early in the year for reauthorization. Yours has been the critical leadership on this bill to provide higher education access to young people in the District equivalent to opportunities available in all the states. The District of Columbia Tuition Assistance Grant Program (DCTAG) acts as a substitute for an expanded university system for the District, which unlike every state, has no unified system of several colleges and universities, but only one open admissions state university. The program allows D.C. students to attend public colleges or universities in the United States at low in-state tuition rates or to receive $2,500 annually to attend certain private colleges and universities in the region or private Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) throughout the country.
This program won praise for its unqualified success at a recent Senate D.C. Subcommittee oversight hearing on Tuesday. Mayor Anthony Williams testified that TAG is credited with the 35 percent increase in D.C. students attending college while the rate of growth elsewhere in the country has seriously lagged. For the most recent school year, almost 5,000 students received funding from TAG to enroll in universities and colleges in 45 states, the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands. More than half of these students are the first in their families to attend college. These qualitative results represent the city’s most important progress toward developing a workforce that can meet the increasing education requirements for employment in the region.
I am grateful that the President has shown his confidence in the program by including $35 million in his FY 07 budget for DC TAG, an increase of almost $2 million over last year’s funding. However, we are working to make sure that issues raised in the Senate about the cost of providing equal higher education opportunities for District residents do not undercut the record pace at which our young people are going to college and coming back home to help expand our economy. I especially appreciate the strong support that TAG continues to have from the Republican leaders who were instrumental in helping to get TAG enacted, particularly Representative Tom Davis and Senator George Voinovich, among others. It would be tragic to allow this immensely successful and popular higher education program to become a victim of its own success. The rising cost of the program is due entirely to increasing numbers of students choosing to attend college, not to the cost of the grant, which has always been capped at $10,000 annually for public institutions and $2,500 for private institutions. Yet, D.C. residents and families have been willing to make the necessary sacrifices to meet the cost of large annual increases in state tuition nationwide, despite the modest family incomes of most of our students. Working with D.C. State Education Office officials to find acceptable ways to harness costs, I believe that the large rise in college attendance will level off soon because the increases during the first five years of TAG have come largely from increased access to college because of the financial assistance TAG affords, not from overall population expansion.
I appreciate the strong bipartisan support this vital federal educational assistance program has received. I believe the results fostered by the program have earned our support.