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House Education and the Workforce Committee Passes A Bad Bill for Students and Families

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 13, 2017
Media contact: Sarah Schultz, Communications Director, sarah.schultz@younginvincibles.org, 202-734-6510

[Washington] – Late last night, the House Education and Workforce Committee passed a bill to dramatically restructure our nation’s higher education system on a party line vote. The PROSPER Act (H.R. 4508) would leave students and families worse off overall by failing to spur public investment in our higher education system, cutting or weakening regulations designed to protect students and promote civic engagement, and narrowing, or leaving stagnant, programs that ensure affordable access to higher education. Young Invincibles supported several amendments to improve the bill and to reverse harmful changes to key programs, and was disappointed to see these rejected. Reid Setzer, Young Invincibles’ director of government affairs, issued the following statement:

“It’s disheartening to see the wholesale dismissal of several policies that would directly benefit students and families by Republicans on the Committee. Students and families want policies to help them afford higher education and manage their student loan payments, and voting down amendments to expand Pell, invest in on-campus child care, improve income-based repayment, and reinstate Public Service Loan Forgiveness does not achieve those goals. While there are some positive aspects to the bill, it fails to make the systemic reforms students and families have been waiting far too long for. We continue to oppose the bill and call on the Republican majority to begin bipartisan negotiations on the future of the Higher Education Act.”