Issue Position: Education

Issue Position

Achieving and maintaining the highest standards in American education is key to our national competitiveness and to the success of individual Americans.

The United States is home to educational opportunities which have no equal throughout the world. Today's youth must not lose sight of the importance of a good education and should be encouraged to exercise the determination and perseverance required to make the most of the opportunities before them.

As a parent, grandparent and lifelong educator, I understand how important it is for North Carolinians to know that local teachers have the tools they need to help our children reach their potential. But education is not best when micro-managed at the federal level.

In 2013, my colleagues and I took a positive step forward in reforming our nation's public schools by passing legislation on the House floor that reauthorizes the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. This legislation would have rolled back the federal footprint on education and put important decisions about education back where it should be -- with parents and teachers. Unfortunately, the Senate failed to act.

In the 114th Congress, I have the opportunity to continue working with my colleagues to make more important changes that strengthen and refine American public education and empower North Carolina and other states as we consider legislation to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.

As a member of the House Committee on Education & the Workforce and the Chair of the Subcommittee on Higher Education & Workforce Training, I will continue to support education proposals which return decision-making power and resource flexibility to the local level while keeping schools accountable for results to taxpayers, parents and students.

Higher Education:

From personal experience, I know that paying for college is hard work. It's getting harder as tuition and fees increase and the vast majority of American households are feeling that pressure.

The need for solutions to help ease the challenge of college affordability is especially acute in today's jobless economy. So many recent graduates took out loans with an expectation that they would be able to find a job to pay off their debt, only now many find themselves struggling with un-or-underemployment.

All students should have the necessary, honest information they need to make an informed decision about the financial obligations they voluntarily assume when they go to college. And taxpayer support for higher education should be well-spent, not wasted.

The Higher Education subcommittee I chair will continue to look for and promote solutions to help contain and bring clarity to college costs for all students and families considering the investment.

It should certainly give every one of us pause that the cost of tuition at most institutions has increased well beyond the rate of inflation and concomitant with historically high taxpayer support. We want every hard-earned dollar taken from the American people for the purpose of subsidizing higher education actually to make college costs more manageable. If data and experience show that's not happening, for the sake of students and taxpayers, we must ask why?

These issues and others, I hope to confront through the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act in the 114th Congress.

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