Tag Archives: United States Congress

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Pell Grants help millions of Black students access higher education … by Matt Nelson, ColorOfChange.org


Tell Congress to stand up for educational opportunity:

 Black families across the U.S. are finding it harder to pay the rapidly-increasing costs of higher education, and now some members of Congress are trying to dramatically cut the Pell Grant program — a lifeline that makes college possible for more than 9 million low-income students each year.1

The Republican-led proposal would put educational access and advancement out of reach for millions of prospective Black students. $900 million in cuts would mean dumping 1 million students from the program within the next five years — half of whom could be kicked out before the end of this school year. The plan would also shrink the size of the award for many current recipients.2

The entire 2012 budget is under negotiation and Congress must vote by next Friday to avoid a potential government shut down. This debate is about funding priorities, and important programs like Pell will be cut unless enough members of Congress stand up to support education. Our elected officials should be working to expand opportunities for economic growth, not decimating higher education programs that help put low-income students and students of color in good jobs. Please call on members of the House of Representatives, where Republicans pose the biggest threat to Pell Grants, to vote down any attempts to cut or restrict the program:

http://act.colorofchange.org/sign/PellFunding

Tuition and fees at colleges and universities continue to skyrocket, increasing more than 400% since 1982 — more than 4 times the rate of inflation.3 Access to a good education dramatically increases a person’s chances for solid employment and pay. Young adults with a college degree are nearly 3 times more likely to be employed, and earn almost twice as much as those with just a high school diploma.

Defunding Pell Grants will hit Black and low-income students the hardest. Nearly half of Black undergraduates rely on Pell Grants to attend school, and families with incomes below $40,000 constitute 90% of awardees.4 Republicans have used racially-charged language as part of their attack on Pell. One Congressman called Pell “the welfare of the 21st century.”5

Of course, Pell isn’t welfare. In fact, the average grant size is much less likely to cover a sizable amount of college tuition costs than when the program began 40 years ago. Back then, Pell covered 100% of the average cost of tuition while today’s maximum Pell award generally covers one-third.6

Pell Grants are a cornerstone of our nation’s student aid program and greatly influence the makeup of our nation’s colleges and universities, providing much-needed racial and economic diversity within the overall student population. Tell Congress to fund higher education, and when you do, ask your friends and family to do the same.

http://act.colorofchange.org/sign/PellFunding

Thanks and Peace,

— Rashad, James, Gabriel, Dani, Matt, Natasha and the rest of the ColorOfChange.org team
    December 10th, 2011

Help support our work. ColorOfChange.org is powered by YOU—your energy and dollars. We take no money from lobbyists or large corporations that don’t share our values, and our tiny staff ensures your contributions go a long way. You can contribute here:

http://www.colorofchange.org/donate

References

1. “House Budget Committee Is Searching for Excuses to Cut Pell Grants,” Center for American Progress, 11-15-2011
http://act.colorofchange.org/go/1070?akid=2320.1174326.5nh0Fe&t=7

2. “Fight for Social Programs Looms Anew in the House,” New York Times, 10-03-2011
http://act.colorofchange.org/go/1071?akid=2320.1174326.5nh0Fe&t=9

3. “Is college still worth the price?” CNN Money, 04-13-2009
http://act.colorofchange.org/go/1073?akid=2320.1174326.5nh0Fe&t=11

4. “Pell Grants: The Cornerstone of African-American Higher Education,” Journal of Blacks in Higher Education
http://act.colorofchange.org/go/1072?akid=2320.1174326.5nh0Fe&t=13

5. “Rep. Denny Rehberg: Pell Grants Are Becoming ‘The Welfare Of The 21st Century’,” Huffington Post, 04-01-2011
http://act.colorofchange.org/go/1074?akid=2320.1174326.5nh0Fe&t=15

6. “Infographic: A History of the Shrinking Pell Grant,” Campus Progress, 05-23-2011
http://act.colorofchange.org/go/1075?akid=2320.1174326.5nh0Fe&t=17

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

AFL – CIO


 
AMAZING
You’ve got to see this—these stories from jobless workers blew us away.See the stories, share them and add your voice.
   

You need to check out this website, right now.

It’s a powerful reminder of the real faces behind America’s sobering unemployment statistics. It has real pictures and stories from job-hunters and impacted people from all walks of life—from your state and from every state.

I hope you’ll take a minute to look at these powerful stories, share them and add your own.

If Congress fails to act by Dec. 31, extended unemployment insurance will expire for millions.

We never forget these are real people who face the prospect of going hungry and getting thrown out of their homes soon after the holidays if Congress fails to act. Many of us have been there before—or have friends and family who have.

Even though obstructionists in Congress are willing to ignore our joblessness crisis, we refuse to let these stories get brushed under the rug.

Click here to see and share the stories and faces behind America’s joblessness crisis.

Then, share our website on Facebook and Twitter and forward this message to all your friends.

These stories and pictures won’t just live on a website. We’ll share them with the media, hand-deliver them to Congress during our massive day of action on Dec. 8 and promote them widely on the Internet.

If callous members of Congress think they can sit back and allow unemployment aid to expire while they play political games, they’re wrong. With your help we’re going to force them to see this crisis head-on—with real faces of real people who are jobless and struggling in this brutal economy.

See these stories, share them and add your voice.

In Solidarity,

Manny Herrmann
Online Mobilization Coordinator, AFL-CIO

P.S. It’s not just people who are unemployed right now who have stories to tell. Millions of others do, too.

Maybe you’ve been jobless in the past and relied on unemployment benefits to get through. Or you’ve seen firsthand how much unemployment hurts your community and America—and how much unemployment aid helps. Or maybe you can write a brief statement of support for the jobless or urge Congress to act—even in just one to two sentences.

Together, we’re creating a visual display of the impact of unemployment that will be too powerful to ignore. See and share stories and statements in your state and across America. Then, add your own.
To find out more about the AFL-CIO, please visit our website at www.aflcio.org.
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Is Congress about to put you out of work?

1 Comment

 

 
 

Click here to watch the video

Watch the Video | Send Our Video to Your Elected Officials

Now that the deficit committee failed, war profiteers are scrambling to undo automatic cuts to their profit margins. They’ve re-launched their propaganda campaign focusing on jobs, but our new video exposes the truth: military spending is a job killer. If Washington, D.C. stops automatic cuts to the military budget at the expense of other programs, it will be a disaster for the economy.Send our video to your elected officials and make sure they understand the consequences of failing to make real cuts to the military budget.Super-wealthy war profiteer CEOs rely on massive Pentagon budgets for their wealthy lifestyles. They and their allies in the Pentagon are using huge lobbying budgets in an unprecedented economic fear campaign to convince Congress that war spending is some kind of grotesque jobs program. Nothing could be further from the truth.As our video shows, military spending costs jobs compared to other ways of spending the money. Protecting war budgets at the expense of other job-creating programs will mean more jobless people than virtually any other possible budget plan.Help us put the truth in your elected officials’ hands. Our toolwill let you push your senators and congressmen to do the right thing, despite the war industry’s propaganda push.This is an uphill battle, and we need your help. Please send our latest video to your elected officials now so they understand that military spending costs jobs.

Sincerely,

Derrick Crowe, Robert Greenwald
and the Brave New Foundation team

P.S. We continue to fight the war profiteers’ propaganda, but doing so with hard-hitting videos like this is expensive. After you send the video to Congress, please consider making a donation to support War Costs.
~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Pizza is a vegetable? Tell Congress to Promote Healthy School Meals


 

We thought we fixed this when Ronald Reagan  declared ketchup to be a vegetable and most of our country laughed out loud.   But apparently not.

 http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=%2F2w9NMwavBAhxQgjDpoZ9NcufT5FYZsE

Late last night, Congress  unveiled change to the National School Lunch program that will allow a few dabs  of tomato paste to be considered a vegetable which means that a pizza  is back on our kids’ tables and obesity is here to stay.

Congress chose to look past the straightforward  recommendations of the National Academy of Sciences‘ Institute of Medicine and  the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), and instead get in bed with the  American Frozen Food Institute and the National Potato Council to gut major  policy recommendations from the bill.   This unhealthy serving of  corporate special interests will hurt America‘s children — all 55 million of  our kids, particularly poor and disadvantaged kids who have to count on school  for their lunches.

Our nation’s schoolchildren deserve better. Tell  Congress to support the USDA’s work to improve schools meals. The health of our  nation’s schoolchildren is simply too important to be left to special interest  groups like the American Frozen Food Institute or the National Potato Council.

But don’t just listen to Earth Day Network on  this one. Over 100 retired generals and admirals recently declared that the  dire state of our nation’s school food is a national security concern. Why?  One-third of all applicants to the U.S. military are turned down because they  are simply “too fat to fight.”

The USDA had proposed school nutrition standards  that would have doubled the overall amount of fruits and vegetables and would  have increased whole grains and low-fat dairy, while reducing sodium, unhealthy  fats and excess calories. Yet, lobbying from special interest groups has once  again derailed some of these critically important improvements-improvements  that would have given our kids a fighting chance. 

Let the USDA finish its job of helping schools  improve the nutritional quality of their meals. Tell Congress to get off the  payrolls of those FAT cats and back on the side of our children.  http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=2qyDe9WZrcbUkgWGnKl%2FONcufT5FYZsE

– The Earth Day Network Team