Issue Position: Education

Issue Position

Rosa has fought to increase funding for Head Start, the most effective early childhood development program ever developed. Head Start has provided comprehensive development, literacy, and family services to more than 20 million pre-schoolers from working families. She has also worked to promote an early learning focus in the Race to the Top program and has established the bi-partisan Congressional Baby Caucus to focus public policy on the healthy development of infants and toddlers.

Rosa believes that educating the whole child means more than teaching to meet the requirements of a test. She fought to reform the No Child Left Behind Act to provide states with more flexibility in measuring student achievement and last year voted to enact the Every Student Succeeds Act to help our students in greatest need of support. Rosa strongly supports teachers, which includes providing teachers with strong preparation and professional development and valuing the work that they do each day.

To make college more affordable, Rosa has fought to raise the maximum Pell Grant award. Due to increases in tuition and fees, Pell Grants do not cover as many credit hours as they did previously. Rosa has also worked to curb the rise in student debt by calling on Congress to keep student loan interest rates low and close financial aid loopholes being exploited by for-profit institutions.

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