Norton DCTAG Roundtable to Feature Testimony from Wide Cross-Section of Students and Parents, Today

WASHINGTON, DC – As students prepare to choose colleges, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton’s (D-DC) roundtable on the D.C. Tuition Assistance Grant (DCTAG) program will feature testimony from D.C. students, parents and alumni about the DCTAG experience, how the program has given D.C. students opportunities many would not have had otherwise, has kept residents in the city, and helps prepare students to excel in today’s competitive job market. The roundtable is today from 6:30 p.m. until 8:30 p.m., in 2203 Rayburn House Office Building. The panelists will include students who are currently receiving DCTAG and attend Bowie State University, Delaware State University, Trinity Washington University and the University of Maryland; parents of students who will use DCTAG and parents of current DCTAG students at Georgia State, the University of Michigan, the University of Wisconsin and the University of Virginia; graduates who are now working and used DCTAG to attend Morgan State University, Penn State University, and Rutgers. After the panelist presentations, the roundtable will be open to receive stories other residents may have on their DCTAG experience.

“We are pleased that a wide cross-section of students and parents have come forward to speak about DCTAG and what it has done for them personally and for the city,” said Norton. “As an increasingly large number of D.C. parents and students are coming forward from across the city for the upcoming college school year, the panelists will provide insight into the benefits of DCTAG and of college itself. Almost all DCTAG students have come back to our city as college graduates and enrich the local workforce and economy. It is important to hear from parents and students alike at a time when the media reports some Americans, faced with high tuition costs, are passing on college. I hope that DCTAG, which picks up tuition, will keep that notion out of this town.”

DCTAG, which Norton got enacted in 1999, provides up to $10,000 annually toward the difference between in-state and out-of-state tuition at public four-year colleges and universities, and up to $2,500 annually toward tuition at private colleges in the D.C. region, Historically Black Colleges and Universities nationwide, and two-year colleges. DCTAG has doubled college attendance among students from the District, and is considered by many experts to be the most important workforce development program in the city. Every Republican and Democratic President has supported, and most often increased, DCTAG funding since it was enacted in 1999. Twenty thousand students have been educated with DCTAG funding since its inception, and 5,000 D.C. students are attending college today with DCTAG, two-thirds of whom are from low-income families. The number of students applying for DCTAG has increased every year, yet no eligible student has ever been denied funding to attend a DCTAG-eligible institution. President Obama’s recently released fiscal year 2015 budget proposes the highest appropriation ever for DCTAG, at $40 million, a $10 million increase over the fiscal year 2014 enacted level. This unprecedented amount follows a letter Norton sent to the President last month to reiterate her request that he fully fund DCTAG, especially in light of the D.C. Council’s approval of the D.C. Promise bill, which, according to House and Senate appropriators, could risk the future of DCTAG funding.

Published: March 18, 2014