Sec. 811. Policy statement on higher education and workforce development opportunity
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/bill/114/hconres/27/eh/section-811·A research copy — for the controlling text, always check the official state or federal source. Not legal advice.
The House finds the following: A well-educated workforce is critical to economic, job, and wage growth. Roughly 20 million students are enrolled in American colleges and universities. Over the past decade, tuition and fees have been growing at an unsustainable rate. Between the 2004–2005 Academic Year and the 2014–2015 Academic Year— published tuition and fees at public 4-year colleges and universities increased at an average rate of 3.5 percent per year above the rate of inflation; published tuition and fees at public two-year colleges and universities increased at an average rate of 2.5 percent per year above the rate of inflation; and published tuition and fees at private nonprofit 4-year colleges and universities increased at an average rate of 2.2 percent per year above the rate of inflation.
Federal financial aid for higher education has also seen a dramatic increase. The portion of the Federal student aid portfolio composed of Direct Loans, Federal Family Education Loans, and Perkins Loans with outstanding balances grew by 119 percent between fiscal year 2007 and fiscal year 2014. This spending has failed to make college more affordable. In his 2012 State of the Union Address, President Obama noted: We can’t just keep subsidizing skyrocketing tuition; we’ll run out of money .
American students are chasing ever-increasing tuition with ever-increasing debt. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, student debt now stands at nearly $1.2 trillion. This makes student loans the second largest balance of consumer debt, after mortgage debt. Students are carrying large debt loads and too many fail to complete college or end up defaulting on these loans due to their debt burden and a weak economy and job market. Based on estimates from the Congressional Budget Office, the Pell Grant Program will face a fiscal shortfall beginning in fiscal year 2017 and continuing in each subsequent year in the current budget window.
Failing to address these problems will jeopardize access and affordability to higher education for America’s young people. It is the policy of this resolution to address the root drivers of tuition inflation, by— targeting Federal financial aid to those most in need; streamlining programs that provide aid to make them more effective; maintaining the maximum Pell grant award level at $5,775 in each year of the budget window; and removing regulatory barriers in higher education that act to restrict flexibility and innovative teaching, particularly as it relates to non-traditional models such as online coursework and competency-based learning.
The House finds the following: 8.7 million Americans are currently unemployed. Despite billions of dollars in spending, those looking for work are stymied by a broken workforce development system that fails to connect workers with assistance and employers with trained personnel. The House Education and Workforce Committee successfully consolidated 15 job training programs in the recently enacted Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act. It is the policy of this resolution to address the failings in the current workforce development system, by— further streamlining and consolidating Federal job training programs; and empowering states with the flexibility to tailor funding and programs to the specific needs of their workforce, including the development of career scholarships.