With a Democratic majority in Congress, students are likely to
see the introduction of new programs and agendas for higher
education.
The Democratic Party has published the “Six-Point Plan for
2006,” which highlights education as one of its main
concentrations.
The agenda includes making college tuition tax deductible,
expanding Pell Grants, and cutting student loan interest rates.
“Access to higher education will become a very powerful
issue under the Democrats,” said Susanne Lohmann, a UCLA
professor of political science and public policy.
“Access” has become the Democrats’ code word
for increasing the numbers of lower-income students who are
represented at elite universities, Lohmann said.
In the lead up to the Nov. 7 election, Nancy Pelosi, then the
minority House leader who will now be the majority leader in the
House, said if the Democrats retook the House, the party would make
access to public higher education a top priority.
Pelosi also announced earlier this month the Democratic
“Innovation Agenda,” which promises a commitment to
training math and science educators and has supported an increase
in the Pell Grants.
Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., has also been working on programs
to increase the Pell Grant. The federally funded grant is awarded
to full-time students and ranges between $400 and $4,050.
President Bush said during his 2004 election campaign that he
was planning on increasing the Pell Grant maximum to $5,100, but it
has not changed in four years.
“The (Democrats’) general trend is in favor of Pell
Grants and changing selection criteria for prestigious elite
universities to admit lower-income students,” Lohmann
said.
But Lohmann was uncertain about how far Democrats would actually
prioritize education and said she did not expect drastic changes in
the near future.
“I don’t think higher education is at the top of the
(Democrats’) agenda,” she said. “I don’t
really expect right off the bat a lot of activity, but more in the
long run.”
In the past month, Democratic senators from across the country
have been trying to push legislation that concentrates on higher
education through Congress.
Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., future chairman of the
chamber’s Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions,
introduced in 2005 the College Quality, Affordability and Diversity
Act in order to combat the heavy loans students are collecting.
If passed, the act will help expand access to college, enhance
teacher quality, and promote diversity, according to the
act’s summary in the Library of Congress.
Clinton and Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., co-sponsored the act,
which is in the first stages of its legislative process.
The act would enable borrowers to refinance their consolidated
loans and increase funding for programs which improve access to
college for minorities and first-generation students.
Clinton, a member of the education committee, has been working
on a variety of different bills that concentrate on higher
education.
She sponsored the Student Borrower Bill of Rights, which defines
rights students have when paying off college loans, including the
right to make affordable loan payments and the right not to be
exploited by their lenders.
This bill is also in its first stages of the legislative
process.
Baucus, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee,
has been working on an “American competitiveness
agenda” which, according to the senator’s Web site,
aims to promote more accessible and more affordable higher
education.
In September, he introduced the Baucus Education Competitiveness
Act of 2006. The act outlines some very basic and some very bold
ideas regarding higher education, said Carol Guthrie, Baucus’
spokeswoman.
The act includes specific goals, such as increasing the Pell
Grant to $6,000 by 2007, and more general aims, such as waiving
college tuition for anyone who studies and becomes a math or
science teacher.
Like many of the other Democratic senators, Pelosi has said she
wants to raise the Pell Grant maximum.