Want to hear the biggest flip-flop of the 2004 presidential
election?
Nearly 10 months ago, President Bush told a crowd in Whippany,
N.J., that he “came to this office to solve problems and not
pass them on to future generations.”
Yet four years since taking the oath of office, even the most
devoted CNN or Fox News fan would be hard-pressed to think of a
single college-education plan that the “compassionate
conservative” has tried to implement.
Indeed, there has been nothing compassionate about the
college-education policy of the Bush administration. Though in 2001
he promised to raise Pell Grants to $5,100, the grants have
stagnated at $4,050, even as the poverty rate is up and the average
family income is down $1,535 from 2000.
At the same time, tuition at public colleges has increased by an
average of 35 percent. Colleges and universities have taken drastic
measures to slash their budgets, eliminating essential but
expensive student programming. Grants and scholarships are rapidly
being replaced by costly student loans and work study.
Approximately 220,000 young people were not able to afford a
four-year public university last year.
America can do better.
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry has a
realistic and fiscally responsible plan to alleviate the great
financial burden of financing a college education to ensure that,
regardless of economic hardship or personal struggle, any motivated
and qualified young person can attain a goal of a college
diploma.
First, Kerry understands the sacrifice that families must make
to finance a college education and will create the College
Opportunity Tax Credit, a tax credit on up to $4,000 of college
tuition every year.
Next, to stabilize tuition rates and prevent fee increases like
UCLA’s, Kerry will offer $10 billion in fiscal relief to
states that restrain tuition growth.
The Kerry administration will also require banks to bid in an
open auction for the business of student loans, eliminating the
subsidized and guaranteed profits for banks that cost taxpayers
billions of dollars. This will let the market, not government
lobbyists, set student loan interest rates.
Also, Kerry will ask young people to give back to their country
like no president since President Kennedy. Kerry recognizes the
great urge so many students have felt to give back to their country
since Sept. 11, 2001. Under his revolutionary National Service
Program, at least 200,000 Americans who work full-time in
designated community programs for two years will receive four years
of in-state public college tuition completely free. In programs
that teach and mentor children, care for the elderly, build homes
for the needy, and protect this great country we live in, we can
return our country to real American values.
Kerry also wants to create college-preparation programs that
work, most importantly by fully funding President Bush’s No
Child Left Behind Act. Though Bush’s unfunded mandate fails
to recognize the division of quality between what can be seen as
the two American school systems ““ one for the rich and one
for the poor ““ Kerry will increase the education budget by
$10 billion a year.
Additionally, Kerry will support funding to GEAR UP, an
inner-city college outreach program that helps 2 million children
and is underfunded by the Bush administration. With a quality K-12
education, students of every background will have the opportunity
for a quality college education.
I know all of you economics students out there are thinking,
“Are these programs fiscally plausible? Is Kerry raising my
taxes?”
The answer is that 98 percent of all Americans will keep their
current tax cuts. By rolling back the tax cut for incomes over
$200,000, Kerry will have the necessary funds to pay for his
education policies ““ and also cut Bush’s
record-breaking deficit. Rolling back the tax cut for the richest
Americans will in no way jeopardize the quality of life of those
who have reaped the most benefits from our economic system.
Instead, it will finance life-altering programs for those most in
need.
We have clear differences in the two presidential candidates: an
incumbent who has never taken higher education seriously and failed
to invest in our education and a challenger who wants to return the
U.S. higher education system to a quality that reflects the
strength and idealism of our great, diverse country.
This may be the most important election of your lifetime. Vote
for John Kerry, and let America be America again.
Miller is the publicity director of the Bruin
Democrats’ Bruins for Kerry.