For granted. Among the chattering classes all signs suddenly pointed to decline, markers ranged from the sale of the iconic Crystal Cathedral mega church to the increasing number of americans who consider themselves spiritual not religious. On the political side, the understanding that the evangelical vote is a king making vote is now dead. Few then dared except in the case of 2008 imagine the evangelical left would ever become the Democratic Party version of the christian right. The Obama Presidency promised a new twist on the old story of american a in politics. And obama First American address he spoke of the nation of believers. And religion which it been so often defined in evangelical terms had a special place in the pantheon of american worldviews but not an exclusive waste. Many of the issues that our the evangelical rights rise has not run their course. The issue of abortion especially will stay salient and might even become more so if roe v wade does not survive. Many voters on the left and center still view Christian Conservative activism as a threat to democracy and they are now entering their second generation. Obama offered to change the subject. He was better equipped than any president before him to draft american pluralism in its fullness that if obamas story is america story than his next turn is no more certain or the next Supreme Court decision. Thank you. Didnt know what it was, felt better, and then peritonitis set in was intensive care and my folks at that time thought they were going to lose me. So you didnt know it had ruptured . No. I had a stomach ache, it hurt, and then felt better. The pressure was relieved and i went outside and played. It was a saturday. By that night i was doubled over blind in pain. I remember asking my mother during that time, i asked her am i going to die . And she was honest with me and she sed said we dont know. But were praying and we believe that you will make it. Hi there. How are you . This is very helpful. I can see the sign, too. As you see we have cspan here which does a great job of opening up Public Events and Public Policy and the congress of the yitesd to the people of the United States. They do a wonderful job. Were pleased they are here. I am pleased that all of you are here. Let me begin by thanking the student leaders for being here. Welcome to Capital Technology university. Were honored and delighted to host this conversation with the congressman where you can share your ideas, thoughts concerns, issues concerning Higher Education that can help the congressman shape policy for the United States of america as well as for maryland. Were very proud of all of you. As you complete your education at your colleges and universities im confident and hopeful that you can learn the skills and the arts of professionalism, leadership, citizenship so that one day you may become steny hoyer. And have major impact on the drecks for this country. May i introduce the congressman to you very briefly. I will not read his bio. It would take the rest of our hour together. As you probably know he is our representative from the fifth Congressional District of maryland to the u. S. House of representatives. He has done wonders in supportling all the federal facilities around our county and area. He is perhaps best known for much of his legislation and leadership for environment natural resour protection, job creation fire safety Emergency Response organization, and he has had major impact on both domestic and Foreign Policy of our country. Perhaps his most enjoyable and challenging role in congress is that he is a remarkable consensus builder. He has served as if the majority leader in the u. S. Congress. He currently serves as the democratic whip. If you think about that for a moment he has the joy of developing consensus understanding, and support among all of his democratic constituents and reaching across the aisle to the republicans. If you can develop those kind of skills, im sure he will be very proud of you whatever profession you choose. Before i turn it over to congressman hoyer we do have to do our obligatory quiz. Ready . You dont have to pull out a pencil. All i need is one right answer. How many terms has young mr. Steny hoyer served in the United States house of representatives . He has served 17 sterms. I think back in 2007 became the longest serving representative in maryland. I wish you have a very successful roundtable. Im going to take president wood every place i go. This is my 34th year in the congress of the United States. Back in 1981, none of you were born in 1981. You were born, close though. When were you born . 81. Ok. But i wont ask around the second row there is when you were born but i am very pleased to be here. It is a wonderful time to be a student. I think any time is a wonderful time to be a student. But i will tell you this. In many respects your time is more challenging than my time. I tell people when i graduated from suitland high school, about 15, 20 miles from here in prince georges county, america was unchallenged. We had military might, almost everything. I graduated in college 1963. I worked at c. I. A. As a file clerk so i took maybe 11, 1 credits depending when they were offered for three years. And then i went full time my last two years. But nobody in that time thought that america wouldnt provide us with a job and with an unabated growth. And that we didnt have any competitors in the world. You had the bipolar world and soviet union. But otherwise economically there was no scommet tor of the United States. Frankly, we werent as focused obhow important it is to make sure that our best resource, our strongest resource that is, all of you were honed to do the very best thked. Now, we have to do that. Now we dont have a young person and a not so young person now im an old person to waist. The United Negro College fund, some of you have heard a mind is a terrible thing to waste. We dont have a Single Person to waste and we have to the extent of your ability hone it, empower it, expand it to the greatest extent possible because not for you. You will be the beneficiary. But for our countrys sake, for our competitive sake, for our growths sake. So thank you for being here. One of the issues i want to hear from all of you is we know i want to tell you a fact thats going to give you a little bit of pain. I got a scholarship to the university of maryland my first year. Which i promptly lost. Because i academically my first year was terrible. In any event i got a scholarship. And what i owed my first semester i was a commuter, remember working at night 86. That is a grimace. Thats what you pay for a book. Thats assuming a small book. A chapter of a book. Although were going to have a lot of bookeds on your kindle or on your ipad or something which i think is going to be a cost saver for you. But and i went to law scool, georgetown law scool and my tuition again i didnt live i dont think any of my colleagues lived on campus, was about 560 a semester. So about 1100. I got a Loan National defense education act which is a loan passed in the late 50s. Anybody know why it was passed . Youre too young. What happened in 1957 that really got americas attention that we may be not the only country on earth who could do really neat things . Vietnam . No. Vietnam was in the 60s. Spending cut nick . Spending cut sputh nick. I have a 1949 dodge car. That was my first car that i bought. The first car i had. Whoever bought it. I remember does anybody know where hill crest heights is . The radio came on and said the russians have put a space craft going around the earth. Sputh nick. And america was amazed and shagrind and had a sense of maybe there are competitors, maybe there is somebody. Weve got to get on the stick. And thats when eisenhower supported the passage of the National Defense education act. Now we have pell grants and other programs but that was the first. The reason being because he knew that we need to make sure that people had access to affordable Higher Education if they had the abilities to take advantage of Higher Education. And one of the challenges we have in America Today is we are pricing out too many people out of Higher Education. When the pell grant was first adopted it replaced 70 of the tuition costs. Now its closer to 30, 35, if youre lucky. Now its up to about 5400. And we increased it 37 back in 2009, i think it was. So we could make sure that so many of you could take advantage of college. My family didnt have the ability to contribute to my college at all. Zero. So what i paid for i either borrowed in the National Defense education act to go to law school but college was cheap enough that i could pay for it by just saving, by working. So i want to hear from you as to what you see as the challenges. Tell you obviously you know some of the things weve done. Weve increased pell grants. We ought to be passing a bill that allows students who went to school before you who encouraged an average of 30,000 in loan at a four year education. If you can refinance your house and get your Interest Rate down, we ought to be able to allow you to refinance your loan. How many of you have loans . A lot of you have loans. We also acted to try to cap what you need to repay every year with a based upon your income. So weve done a number of things. So enough talking from me. I wanted to really hear from what you have to say and what you suggest not only from your own personal experience but you talk to fellow students all over the state on your campus, with other students, youre all activists, you talk to other people. I would be really interested and rachel is going to take copious notes. Youre taking notes as well. Hi. Carington. Thats a very distinguished name. Carington reeves. When i was younger than you are, steny my name is steny, steny how many of you have heard of steny before . Zero. I hadnt heard it before. Its my my father was born in denmark. Steny is not a danish name they just made it up. But i was very skinny as a kid. And so i introduced myself as hi im steny hoyer and they would say skinny hoyer . I hated so i started calling myself so i started calling myself s. Hamilton hoyer. I thought i did that for a couple of years and then my friends got on me. Who do you think you are . But in any event, carington, thats a great name. I want to hear from you as to what you see as policies that we could pursue. And given of course we want to stop putting you deeply into debt which is an immoral policy as well as an intellectually bankrupt policy. You guys are inheriting a debt far beyond what i inherited and far beyond what we ought to be leaving you. We have a responsibility to do a much bter job managing our fiscal affairs. Who wants to start off giving me your thoughts on where we are . Good. My name is abdul from prince Georges Community college. I found out that over 70 of the people that come to my school our school are people that are just coming back. From work and they want to get licenses or want to get licensed on something. But many of them find themselves that they cant pay for their education. And the pell grants that we have right now dont support noncredit students ofment so im trying to find out is there a way that we can get a policy that can make people come back to school even when they dont have enough money on them and instead of taking out loans they can utilize maybe pell grants for noncredits or scholarships so they can follow their field. Because over time their work situation comes down to jobs or particular skills to go into the market. There are other programs like construction, truck driving, thai dont need credit classes. They need noncredit. But many cant afford them. Is there any policy theres discussion about that. Clearly theres been a lot of controversy about vocational, Technical Training particularly private sector. Prince georges county is public sector. But theres been a lot of discussion about that. I have an agenda i call make it in america. Its an agenda that talks about manufacturing, expanding manufacturing. Manufacturing leverages more jobs than any other enterprise. Automobile industry for instance correctly states there are nine jobs for every automobile worker person making a car there are nine other jobs that create it, maybe inshurens people, car salesmen, insurers, you know, road builders. I mean, you have cars they create a lot of other jobs. So that i am very focused on giving Technical Skills and urging for instance, welding. Welding may be one of those noncredit. I think it is. It is in construction. Does anybody know what a senior welder can make . Yeah. Six figures. A welder. Theres great demand. One of the things you do making things is you put things together. And welders are in great demand. And theres a shortage of welders. Now, you wouldnt think your parent probably didnt tell you i want you to grow up to be a we woulder. Right . But i will tell you right welder. Right . But i will tell you theres what were trying to do is keep the pell grant at its present level. The president would like toe see it expanded. We would like to see it expanded. One argument you ought to know, an interesting argument, the president im sure hears this. There are some who argue as soon as you expand the pell grant the cost of Higher Education goes up. In other words the more dollars you put into the system i. E. Demand, the supply does not expand as rapidly and therefore the cost goes up. And so there are many members who argue the problem with pell grants or another assistances it simply goes into increases college costs. Im on a board of trustees here and im obst. Marys College Board of trustees. Im the longest serving member of the board of trustees. We are having great difficulty keeping costs down, not raising tuition, while at the same time retaining quality faculty. Youve got this end Quality Support staff. And it is a real challenge. So that there has been a focus on academic credits. Academic focus. But if were going to expand as an economy, we also need to have opportunities and availability and affordability for, as you say, noncredit courses but which very much lead to Economic Growth in our society. What i would like to ask im a student and our Community College is more than just a Community College. The presentation of International Students is high as well as a variety of all ages, from seniors to juniors and this is the reason why we are emphasizing the noncredit classes is because there are many students who start taking credit classes and they drop out because either they cant afford either they have two jobs and then they end up dropping out of school. And when they try to come back what happens is the tuition has increased and that makes it even more harder. So what i do is i try to attend as many meetings as i can and i try to encourage other students to get involved as well. Many students come to college thinking im here because my parents told me to come here. But we want to change that mentality that college is more than just going there, taking classes, and going home. This Community College is like my second home. So thats why im very enthusiastic about the idea of trying to find solutions for all the students not only internationals. I came here i didnt speak any english for example and i had to take at least 30 noncredit classes, english math. I had to pay out of pocket and i had to take a loan to start taking my credit classes because i just stopped working. Unfortunately i lost my job and i had to take a loan. And right now im completing 70 credits and i am still struggling with the bills. And when i applied for Financial Aid they say my husband makes too much money so i i say well i dont see the money. Thats the good news. So its not just me. Its many other students who are not coming back to college because they have other issues. So thats why we want to see if theres opportunity for them to get at least a discount or highlight one of the challenges for policymakers, however. And remember i meant private sector schools. One of the problems is that some of the records show that there are a number of private sector providers that who students dont complete. Who are there for a short period of time. But enough time that the tuition is used and they dont get reimbursement but they dont get a degree or they dont get a certificate of profishsy in welding or construction or plumbing. And because the program does not have enough money to meet the needs of the numbers of students who are in need of that help there is a reluctance to expand eligibility. Based upon completion rates and employment rates. As you know, theres some requirements. But it is a real issue because you also mentioned parents. The reason i mention welders all the time being able to make 100,000 plus is because that is a very important enterprise but most parents would not think of well, thats something. Plummers make a lot of money. Electricians make a lot of mun. And its not just about making a lot of money. Its performing a service thats absolutely essential. And we need to think not just in terms of academic programs, the traditional but also the skills that are necessary to run any kind of complicated society. Congratulations on being a student trustee. Somebody over here. Im going over to this side. Im going with the old guy. Thank you sir. Matt Williams University of Maryland University college. First caveat, active Duty Service Member so that obviously does alet of things with trying to finish in the normal range and thats what i want to talk about. So the i pmp b does not do a really ipb does not do a solid tracking mechanism for any type of college duration period. So it really kind of focuses my understanding on fouryear institution that is have traditional signup rates traditional graduation rates. And you have like, we typically go for years and and according to the stats ticks that come out, 26,000 students, only i think 23 graduate within that traditional time frame structure. So that makes it look like we have a 3 graduation rate. That affects title 4, the market value of the degree that comes out if youre not in the local area and dont realize that were used to be called the adult school. Then youre not going to be able to capture umuc by the way is giving courses to more military personnel around the world in japan and in germany and other places around the world. And my granddaughter graduated from umuc. Its a great school. And its one of the premier Cyber Security schools now, that what youre in . Actually, yeah. Im trying to get them to come over to the dark side. So youre a recruiter. So one of the things that im worried about is the new president ial rating system. We dont have it ichede yet. What system theyre going to use for ranking the colleges. And i worry that because the ipb exists then we might default to it. But then that doesnt give a really good capture of what most students are doing. Like 75 of Current College students are not considered traditional students any more because they dont go get out of high school, go to college for four years, graduate and away they go. It doesnt capture any of the nontraditional people in the right way. And i worry it makes us look bad. Well, of course im a big fan of umuc. And its well known throughout the world. So i think from that standpoint i visited their campus which is located just south of 202. I was there last time you came. Oh, really. So i brought sox for you. Wonderful. Great. Its a gift. I dont know whether i can take socks or not. The fact of the matter is that youre right. We have to think in new terms. Abraham lincoln said as our challenges are new we must think anew and act anew. And we have many, many nontradition i was a sort of traditional student. And what i mean, i left high school, i went to college. I went to school in the daytime. And although i only took on average 11 or 12, 13 credits a semester because i was working 3 30 to 12 00 at night, i was a traditional student in many ways and participated in Student Government particularly when i went full time. But we have such a High Percentage of nontraditional students. We have a lot of students who never go to a campus. Who are on line. My granddaughter took a number of courses on line. A lot of courses, probably most of her courses she took on line. She was working and she had a child. She is now 28. So i think you raise a very, very good point about focusing on nonwhat we used to think of the traditional student or the traditional school. So a good point. Congressman if i might add for mr. Williams benefit you might be aware there is a lot of discussion going on about the rarninging system now. And our universities are very much involved. We share some of your concerns. Its not only oobleleptsdz of time. Its about other criteria for success. How much does immediate earnings after college really matter . There are several questions we want to sort out and hopefully it will reflect a set of needs and interests that everybody has in making sure people complete college and do well afterwards. Im from the college of maryland. Costs are prohibitive for college. All the colleges i was looking at coming out of high school were 45,000 a year. Fouryear private. Fouryear private. I didnt qualify for any grants. I still lived under my parents roof and they made too much much. So i had to go to the nontraditional or semitraditional. So i benefit from my employer paying for part of my school. I just wanted to ask you about the president s plan to he proposed that the plan Community College. Great Community FreeCommunity College. I just want to know what you thought about the cost of college associated with that because you mentioned that if you raise the pell grant there are people who expect the cost of college to go up or argue that the cost could go up. What you think about it in relation to that and what you think as far as the quality of education. Because then everyone its kind of like where it could be the new end of high school. So it kind of elong gathes the whole education cycle. There needs to be a lot of discussion in my view about our traditional 12 years of school. The europeans dont do 12 years. A lot of countries dont do 12 years. They start a year before, they college starts. In other words they have 11 years. I dont know why anybody has 10 whether anybody has 10. But because theres 12 years, thats what we do, 12 years. Now, there are a number of programs where young people can graduate early. I think the president s proposal i dont think its going to pass this year. He pays for it though, as you know, and it is essentially makes Community Colleges free for students. The states have to participate with the federal government. And the student has to maintain a 2. 5 average and has to maintain a minimum of how many credits . 11 12, somewhere in that neighborhood. So there are requirements that wouldnt fit your bill. But i think it is clear that in america is going to be the valueadded highend of the global demi. Economy. Were not going to be the low end and we dont want to be the low end. And if thats the case, then we need people who are trained. And again, not so much for you or for them. But for our economy, our employers, our entrepreneurs our startups. They all need people like yourselfs here at this school but at all your schools who are being trained to do some things that are essential for us to have done. But i think the president s proposal is a good proposal for putting on the table a discussion for how we make sure that we do in fact educate just as we think people ought to graduate from high school, we think they ought to graduate from high school because Research Shows if you graduate from high school youre probably going to make more money and be more stable citizens. So weve got data that shows us there is a societal benefit to your graduating high school. That benefit to you personally but frankly we dont ask people to pay taxes just to benefit you. The reason they pay taxes and they support schools is because they know if society is going to succeed it needs educated students educated people. And a side note on that. Is that going to support returning students . When you say returning to Community Colleges . Yeah. I dont know why to have a degree. I think anybody who is admitted. You mean somebody in and then comes back. Yeah. The interest is im sure it does. I dont know that i have i havent read the language but when i say read the language ive read the description of the bill but i cant remember. But theres no exclusion for returning students. And i dont think there would be. Why would that be . Let me tell you my experience. I say i didnt do too well. Here youve got this guy talking about higher eedication. I went to the university of maryland. I was 18. I wasnt like you and had it together. So i got a 1. 0 back to back. Third semester i dropped out. First semester i went back and got motivated. I wont go into the wole story about john kennedy coming to campus. That semester i graduated with 3. 8 high honors. Why . Because i opened the book. A lot of 18yearolds dont have it together. I dont think im unique. And they just all of you did obviously i think. But i didnt. So i dropped out. And i ended up going to Georgetown Law School and i got a loan. So my view would be why would i want to exclude somebody who dropped out but i dont want them to continue to drop out i want them to encourage them, come back in, participate, and do what you set out to do. But for whatever reasons you may have had an ills in in your family. Me i was just i just didnt have it together so i didnt open a book, didnt study and almost flunked out. Luckily i didnt. I dropped out the third semester. But i got it together and i was 19 i got it together and i did well. So i would certainly expect that the fact that somebody dropped out or was there and then left for whatever reasons couldnt be helped to come back. Dan miller. Im a graduate student and im studying atmospheric physics and basically work for nasa right now. But i would like to i watched interstellar last night. I guess as an 18yearold i fell into the black hole. I would like to talk a little bit about fair access to research that is currently a bill thats going to be coming. I dont know at what stage it is currently but the faster bill. A fair access to science and technology research, stem. And its its essentially a bill that makes something thats already approved practice more official and standardized for many of the other agencies. So any age currently nih currently has a current program, part of the reason why pub med i dont know the number off the top of my head Something Like 70 of all papers accessed with regard to medical information have been accessed through pub med and not through payfor paywall journals. And its something that it offers the opportunity for everyone to be involved in research. And especially because the research that goes on at universities is federally funded in many ways. It makes those federal dollars mean something more to the people that can use them. So just are you saying im not familiar with the bill per se that as a facet, as a condition of receiving federal dollars or other public dollars, that you need to agree that whatever findings that Research Results in are available to the public on line or in some other way . So the nih Program Requires any nih funded projects have to be published publicly within one year of completion. So theres one year where its it can be hidden behind whatever pay wall the publisher has. But after that year they have to release it to the public. And its public information. Well, to the extent that we can make Research Available to people one of the things the computer does for us is allows a lot of researchers not to go down the wrong path. Because they see somebody went down that path it didnt work. So in many ways researchers can be much more efficient and therefore much more productive in terms of getting to results that help mankind if they know what other research has been done. Now, having said that, its not a total simplistic answer. There are issues of copyright, intellectual protection, other things where universities have some circumstance specks about what they can or cannot do. And what we dont want to do is discourage research by saying if you do it within 12 months you have to make it public. There are also some other concerns about that. But well look at that. And because theres a basic premise that if the taxpayer invests in the creation of information, certainly the taxpayer writ large ought to have access to that information. The basic premise i think is correct. Like most things in life its not a simple answer. But certainly the basic premise i think is relatively simple. If i can tag on to that but let me Say Something though. I some of you are probably i served on the Appropriations Committee for the Labor Health Committee which oversaw nih for 24 years longer than some of you have been alive, i suppose. The fact of the matter is that at the time i served this is not on your issue but we invested in about three out of ten applications from University Private sector for what they call external grants. In other words nih does Inhouse Research but most is external grants that they give to colleges, universities, and other some private, but public sector. We call that the pay line which meant that about three out of every and most experts would say three to four of the applications are good science. Five of them, six of them are apparently, you know, for the most part we shouldnt be funding those. We are now funding in some nih institute, the Cancer Institute and others, diabetes, heart lung aging et cetera, some of the institutes were investing in Single Digits which means that less than one in ten Research Grants are being funded. Were disinvesting in basic research. And thats not good for our country. That wasnt on your question but it is related. It is related. And i said to you but i will go to her and then you. Sorry. But to go along with your point. And then a lot of times what happens with the research that does come and is official gets stuck and isnt able to be brought to the public. So if we can invest in things that promote entrepreneurship and allow inventions that are generated in a lab, allow them to get out to the public so we can use them in access because a lot of times the ball is dropped there this that bridge, too. Ings students, there are a lot of students who are interested in entrepreneurship and who are able to take those products, if we can get them together to work together, the Business School with the scientists to bridge that gap and to make that happen. Of course thats the state of the incubator. Where you have an incubator do you have an incubator on campus here . You have an incubator on campus and the synergy of the intellectual heft and perspectives are available so that you can Exchange Information and you can have a really good idea and say thats a great idea. But what if you went down and changed it just a little bit to do this . And somebody else says yeah. And if you did this. And then it becomes a really very, very successful enterprise. So again going back to the more information that is available to the more thinking minds, the better result you will have. Thank you. You started talking about the cost of education, the soaring cost of education in the United States right now. And recently president obama proposed to make Community College tuition free. Speaking in relation to what he said. I just want to gplore you to support that bill for various reasons. The first reason is a lot of students come out of high school and theyre not ready nor a four year college and they go on and spend a lot of money, accumulate a lot of debt and only to discover what they really want to do. So the Community College is valuable and affordable alternative for them to groom themselves and discover themselves. Thats one reason. With the Community College degree talking economics here its still a degree. You can still get a job and start paying taxes and support the economy in a way. So i pretty much want to emphasize the reasons why you need to support that bill is you have already supported it and to make it a reality as soon as possible because i dont think its going to happen in frankly i want to be honest with you first of all, we have an economic crunch. However, i think frankly that the budget that weve considered is bad for our country because it clamps down on investment in education, in health care, and the environment, in infrastructure, all those things that help grow an economy. Other things as well. But i dont think theres much inclination on behalf of the majority to support new programs. I dont mean just this program. New programs. And so but i think, as i said earlier, it is i think hopefully going to be a stimulus, a catalyst for thinking about what Community Colleges do. Because i agree with you it makes a lot of sense, particularly for somebody who is not Community College may have been good for me. Somebody in just trying to figure out what do i want to do. So i think that you make a good point. Without incurring great costs. But i also think we need to think about how long does one is 12 the right years . Is 11 the right years . Can there be who said cs manufacture. Im sure there are many other im not sure you have this program or not where High School Kids in Calvert County and Charles County can take courses at csm while seniors or juniors. We have that. And i think thats excellent. Because that gives somebody while theyre still living at home, you know, or theyre in high school, exposure. And its a much easier transition then for them from being a High School Student to a college student. Because theyve already been exposed and they may take one course or two courses, maybe not more than two courses. I dont know how many courses did you take . I actually almost finished my degree. While you were in high school . Yeah. He thinks he is freeman nebrowski. It took me a while after that but almost. Yeah. But thats not traditional. But theres no reason why traditional has to be done. For one thing, computers have made your generation and the generation before you not there were not pcs when i went to congress. You and this is this came along just in your lifetime as a High School Student. You didnt have these. Now we have access to such powerful engines of information. And learning. Thats not traditional. Tradition was go and the professor lectures to you and you take notes. Right . Now you know, you can my granddaughter was working when she took some of the courses at umuc. She took them on line and she did it put her baby to bed and then she did two hours of class at any time she wanted to and it made a lot of sense. Finally one more thing i want to say. I noticed that a lot of High School Kids are interested in college, they have a very bad perception of Community Colleges. And what do you think can be done to change that perception of Community Colleges in general so that they dont have to go to the four years and because you can mark out three years of education and then transfer. My youngest daughter went to widen. Maybe i didnt here. Delaware. Is anybody from delaware . Went to wide never but just for a few weeks and got very, very homesick and she came home. The next semester she went to prince Georges Community college. My middle daughter had already gone to prince Georges Community college for her first two years. Just because she chose to do that. She was working as well. And then she graduated from the university of maryland. She did her last two years at the university of maryland and then went to nursing school. Shes a nurse. But a lot of parents think because we hear it a lot, if you dont have if youre not a Fouryear College getting a fouryear degree youre really not going to make it. Which is prince Georges Community college and i know both their president s. They are top flight people excellent Community Colleges have some really good people. And Community Colleges have some nontraditional teachers who know a lot more about the real world than the academic may know. So are in order to be a teacher, you have to have ped godgecal courses or something of that nature as opposed to practical experience. Weve changed our thinking on this. So Community Colleges in many ways are an extraordinary entree to deciding what you want to do. My wife knew she wanted to be a teacher when she was 7 years of aim. I didnt know what i wanted to do until i was 19 and john kennedy came to the campus and spoke. I said i wanted to get into Public Service. And i changed my major. Decided to go to law school. And did. And was elected to state senate five months out of law school. That was all because i was exposed. Which could have been done on a Community College campus as well because it was in my second year. So i agree with you. Its a good option. Its an economic option. And it does not preclude in any way and as a matter of fact it facilitates taking advantage of getting a fouryear degree at a Fouryear College. So its not preemptive at all. Thank you. Im a Health Administration major at umbc. I want to ask about the repayment of loan programs that i know the president has proposed and also talking about if it can be expanded to other areas of other careers that which also have shortages such as welders. Talking about the forgiveness in Public Service. Yeah. I know that i have a lot of friends who are in premed will be looking to go to medical school. And also theres a lot of shortages of those professionals especially specialists in rural parts of the country. I know during my internship i saw a presentation. Theres a new Health Care Facility in cumberland maryland now. And whats happening is that a lot of the specialists are retiring. And theyre not getting the flow of students who want to go out and work. Its a real challenge getting medical personnel in rural areas. I wanted to know if not only are they having trouble with specialists but theyre also having trouble with nursing people who want to work in administration, as myself. So i want to know can those repayment, can the loan forgiveness be expanded to those areas as well . Could be. The answer is they could be. Again, cost factor. And which started with Public Service teachers, people working in government. And then you had to do that for an extended period of time. At the end of that time, you may be paying some and the balance would be forgiven. But the answer is and with a weve done in the Affordable Care act, interesting, is try to encourage two things. Number one, primary care physicians. And by giving a better reimbursement. One of the reasons people dont go into primary care is because they dont think they can make enough money to pay back their loan. And thats an issue. If we continue to have very high loan rates and the necessity to take out big loans then when people get out of school their options are narrowed to the detriment of society. Because they then feel they have to go into a line of work that pays them more money so they can repay their loan, which is why we also try to key keep loan repayment to income. Gross income. But the answer to your question is in areas of need, we do that for teachers we still do that for teachers which falls into Public Service because there was a shortage of teachers. And clearly theres not so much a shortage of doctors in large metropolitan areas. But in rural areas there is no doubt. My area down in st. Marys, we have one family from india the shaw family who happen to be my next door neighbors. Who frankly absent them we would have had a significant shortage of medical professionals. One of the reasons they came to st. Marys county is because they were indian they were immigrants and it was easier for them to get started there than it was a more competitive area. But they came in the middle 70s and 40 years later they are one of the primary providers of health care certainly in st. Marys county but also in southern maryland. So the answer to your question is yes. And there are programs that have done that. Rural areas are tough and we need to assure that there is coverage. And the Affordable Care act does try to do that. Both for primary care and rural areas. President of the Student Government association. In regards to the Affordable Care act, a lot of the students here have institutional jobs. Say again. A lot of the students here have a lot of jobs on campus within the institution. Good. And from concerns that im hearing is regarding the hours that theyre able to work. Which limits the amount of funding income that they get and which would help them lower the amount of i guess debt that they would get after the end of four years. Is there any way possible that somewhere down the line you mean under federal law . Right. Increase that limit . The answer to your question is theres a way but you understand the policy makers perspective. The policy makers i want those students to focus on their education. Now, i worked 30 hours a week while i was at Georgetown Law School. Luckily i worked for the state senator. The law school is a block away. I could go back and forth. Georgetown very heavily discouraged that. I dont blame them. It can be better for all of us if we could have gone to School Full Time and worried only about school. In effect that was your fulltime job and you didnt have to worry about financing it. And a lot of students are fortunate enough to have that ability. As i said, my family had no money and therefore i couldnt do that. So in any event, the policy maker says we want to limit your work because were investing in you to focus on your schoolwork. On the other hand, that undermines some students who even with the pell grant or theres some other federal stipend still need money to live on. That may pay their tuition or a part of their tuition. But they need money to live on day to day by so but thats the policymakers problem. We dont want we want the investment that the taxpayer medication to be successful because makes to be successful. Ok. I think anybody got anything to say . Were going to have to wrap up because ive got another thing. This is my seventh event. Ive got the eighth event coming up which will be the last one of the evening. I just have one more thing. Our concern is, will we have a job after we finish our college and we have our degree . Like we may have a piece of paper but will we have a job that will help us pay off our debt and like my parents work in fast food itch to pay for my own i have to pay for my own college education. Its hard telling them i will have a job with my degree. Thats one of the challenges i think a lot of us are having. And i think thats the thing parents are thinging about like when they send their children to college and see where theyre going to send them as well. We certainly hope so. But the first answer is a much better likelihood if you went to college than if you didnt go to college. So in a world of alternatives going to college makes sense because your expectations of success are far greater. If you graduate from high school theyre far greater than if you didnt graduate from high school. And if you dropped out at Junior High School in eighth grade or ninth grade if you happen to be in 16 you have to stay until youre 16. Other states probably similar. So first the argument is youve got a better chance. So take it. Enhance your opportunities. The second thing is this is a challenge for our society. Its a challenge for our society because some good things have happened but they challenge us. Robotics has happened. You know what robotics are. Talking about manufacturing plants. A lot now frankly the arm can reach out grab that, get it over faster and more efficiently and more precisely than i can that the machine does it because the machine does it right on time, puts it right exactly place. So robotics have replaced people. But guess what. The robots are robots. Theyve got to be programmed. Theyve got to be supervised in the sense to make sure that theyre working correctly. That they do it every time. That takes somebody with a Capital College degree. Not just to simply watch but to know why it works that way, how it works, how to make sure that its programmed correctly. But robotics in terms of jobs. In addition, globalization has hurt us. Globalization meaning that given in effect the Global Economy you can manufacture this bottle anywhere in the world. And the only constraints are how much it costs you to get it to market right here. But if you can manufacture it in taiwan and get it to market here in beltsville, at a cost less than if i manufacture it over there maybe because of salaries, maybe because of cost of electricity or leasing the building or whatever the costs are, all the costs go in here. If you do it cheaper you do it over there. Weve got to make sure that you have jobs because we grow high value added jobs here and educate people to do those jobs. And when i say i go back to welders because people dont think thats a high skill. People are paying not just out of the charitable goodness of their heart. Theyre doing it because they understand that is a very valuable skill that somebody has gotten over time