Norton to Speak at Microsoft’s Minority Student Day on Friday

WASHINGTON, DC – Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) tomorrow will speak to 90 District of Columbia public and public charter school students at Microsoft's Minority Student Day at 9:30 a.m. at the Microsoft Innovation Policy Center (901 K Street, NW). The focus of the event is the declining number of minority students entering the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Norton got $30 million in the fiscal year 2012 omnibus spending bill for the District of Columbia Tuition Assistance Grant program (DCTAG), which Norton got passed in 1999 to provide higher education opportunities to D.C. students equal to those available to other Americans. The program gives D.C. students up to $10,000 annually for in-state tuition at any U.S. public college and up to $2,500 annually to attend private colleges in D.C. and the region. DCTAG has doubled college attendance rates in D.C., now up to 60 percent – 10 points above the national average.

Norton, a graduate of D.C. public schools, said, "We've been able to double our college attendance because of DCTAG, but our schools still have a long way to go to convince our youngsters to stay in school long enough to get access to this benefit, available to no one else in the nation."

Published: February 9, 2012