Rep. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) isn't taking anything for granted in her run for the Senate against the most vulnerable of the Republicans up for re-election this year, Mark Kirk. She's also doing her job, a refreshing thing for a member of Congress. This week, she introduced legislation to make college more affordable.
The Congresswoman’s In the Red Act would help put our nation on a path toward debt-free college, increase the maximum Pell Grant to keep pace with skyrocketing costs, invest in our country’s community colleges, enable borrowers to refinance student debt at lower interest rates and increase accountability among colleges and universities to ensure students are receiving high-value degrees and credentials. […]
“I put myself through college with student loans, Pell Grants, and a heck of a lot of waitressing,” said Congresswoman Duckworth. “And I’m still paying off my student loans today—so I know how tough paying for school can be. But every day, an affordable education is growing further and further out of reach for middle-class families, limiting young Americans’ prospects for the future and threatening both our economic growth and global competitiveness. Our In the Red Act will make the common-sense reforms we need to make college more affordable—which should be one of our top priorities in this nation.”
Among its provisions, it would give 9.2 million students an additional $1,300 in grant funding to pay for college costs, allow students to refinance outstanding loans at a lower interest rate; create a federal-state partnership to put two-year community colleges on a path to providing free tuition; tie Pell Grants to inflation so they keep pace with increasing cost of living; and create more accountability for higher education institutions to fight diploma mills. It would be funded by closing some corporate tax loopholes.
She's already got an enthusiastic backer in the Senate, Wisconsin's Tammy Baldwin, who said of the legislation that the "idea that the next generation will be able to go further and do better than the last one is the heart of the American dream. That is why I will fight for the common-sense solutions offered in the In The Red Act." She's introduced a companion bill in the Senate. One more Senate Democrat committed to ending the massive burden of education costs and student loan debt would be a very good thing.
Please donate $3 to help Tammy Duckworth end the Mark Kirk farce and turn the Senate blue.