Norton Says Mayor’s Decision Declining to Fund D.C. Promise will Help Preserve DCTAG

WASHINGTON, DC – Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) made the following statement on D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray’s decision to decline to fund D.C. Promise, a new college access program, in his fiscal year 2015 budget, considering that the federal government already fully funds a unique college access program for D.C. residents, the D.C. Tuition Assistance Grant (DCTAG) program.

“The Mayor’s budget indicates that the city does not have the financial capacity to continually fund a significant college scholarship program, like D.C. Promise or DCTAG. His budget sends a clear message to congressional appropriators, who warned that D.C. Promise could risk future DCTAG funding, that the need for DCTAG funding remains. The Promise bill was at best a promise – only an authorization – without any funding or backing by the city’s Chief Financial Officer. The Mayor, however, had to look at the District’s overall needs and to weigh whether a new, major city-funded higher education program fit the city’s unmet education or other needs. I applaud Mayor Gray’s decision to fund education programs that will increase the number of students who go to college, such as the increases in funding for algebra and foreign languages, and funding for ‘at-risk’ school allotments. To date, we have been able to fund every student who has applied for DCTAG. We should not be satisfied until the number of students who secure admission to colleges exceeds the available federal funds. I believe that our fight in Congress to save DCTAG from total or partial defunding for the 5,000 students now attending college in 49 states and D.C. because of the program was given a positive push today with the Mayor’s budget.”

Norton’s memo to the D.C. Council and Mayor Gray, relaying the warnings from congressional appropriators that the Promise bill could threaten the future of DCTAG funding, can be viewed online at https://norton.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/norton-alerts-dc-residents-and-council-to-risk-of-dc-promise-bill.

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, $40 million, a $10 million increase over the fiscal year 2014 enacted level.

Published: April 3, 2014