Democrats own it. Iran is a done deal. Guest that links to my story, i might add. That is going to be the argument for the campaign trail. Whether that is the president ial campaign trail or also remember that in the 2016 or also remember in the 2016 map, we are looking at the republicans seeking to hold the senate on somewhat unfavorable territory, states were either obama one or either states are more favorable to democrats in a lot of cases. So that will be one thing where it will be interesting to see how it plays out. That is why the republicans will be arguing so much that it is the democrats who control this deal. The have been no republican senators coming out in support of the agreement. In fact, my understanding, at least according to the Portland Press herald up in maine, she may be the only . On the republican side the only question mark on the republican side. Host caller yes, good morning. Host let me pronounce it for you. Niels lesniewski. Caller ok. Thank you. Therelad that you are up following the best and what is real news news reporting. We dont get much of that anymore. A lot of yelling on the radio. Why is itpoint is that nobody mentions the 100 to 200 Nuclear Weapons that israel has had since has been working on and perfecting since the 1950s . This is a, you know, a wellknown point all over the world that we dont seem to discuss it. Host i am going to jump in because we are going to be short on time. Thanks very much for the call. Guest that is another area where people who are supportive of i guess, people who are skeptics of israels intentions in this whole matter have been raising the issue of the unknown exactly but often perceived to be the case situation with the israel and nuclear firepower. And i think that is another thing where you will continue to hear that, but it always gets very tricky around here whether people are for or against the iran deal. Is right. It is something people on capitol hill do not talk about at all. Viewersd one of our says, forget the technical requirements. If the senate is not allowed to vote, the deal will never be seen as legitimate by many. Guest that is an interesting point that i think we are going to hear some of, as well. Beyond the technical requirements and what i said rather about senator cotton. But there will be an vote in the senate. Closer vote and it may not get to 60 votes paid but the solution to that is to change the rules get to 60 votes. But the solution to that is to change the rules. The senate could change. Mitch mcconnell has had no interest in doing that, particularly for legislation, but that is an internal matter in the senate and this is something that has the 60 vote threshold is customary these days and it is something that everyone sort of around here comes to expect. Host a busy fall as lawmakers return next week, and my guess is we will be talking to you often. Niels lesniewski, we appreciate your time. Guest thank you. Host word from politico politico that donald trump will sign the plant. This following a meeting taking place this morning in new york. In a News Conference that we im timothy p. White, chancellor of the California State University. The csu is a Public University comprised of 23 campuses, 460,000 students, and 47,000 staff, celebrating this year, our graduation of the 3 millionth living alum. We are one of the largest systems in the country. Im honored to be before you this morning to discuss what Cal University does to provide access to quality education, to provide the tools students need to excel and to graduate and to carry out our Public Mission for the good of all californians and americans. Education has a unique role as either a gateway or in its absence, a barrier to Economic Prosperity and Civic Engagement and responsibility. Therefore, equal access to quality education is an important issue in the advancement of civil rights. The csu is born of the idea that a high quality education should be accessible to all who are willing and able to do the work. This idea was and still is revolutionary. Californias Public Higher Education system remains a model for many colleges and universities around the country and the world. By creating multiple points of entry for high school graduates, transfer students, returning adults, advanced professionals, californias public colleges and universities are meeting the needs of the modern student. In fact, you can see the Public Mission of the cal states reflected in our student population. Half of our students are earning undergraduate degrees and receive pell awards, and onethird of the students are the first in the family to attend college. Many students commute from their childhood homes and majority work to help cover school and family expenses. Students of color make up nearly twothirds of the degreeseeking undergraduate students at the cal states, and half of all bachelors earned annually by californias latino students, the largest demographic group, are earned at the California State University. Expanding access for historically underserved students is essential to the mission, but access is only a part of it. Its getting students to complete a high quality degree and flourish thereafter is the true goal. The first and often the most daunting barrier to degree completion is College Readiness. Csu embraced several approaches to empower students who need additional preparation to be successful in the university environment. These steps include partnering with k12 and Community Colleges to help students develop University Level skill sets while also forging clear degree pathways between the systems. For many the nearterm goal of high school or Community College is receiving that University Acceptance letter. Yet we, as university folk, must look out to the further horizon. It must come with a plan of support and will and abilities and resources to execute that plan. That is why we launch the Graduation Initiative 2025, an ambitious effort to raise the four and sixyear completion rates while narrowing degree attainment gaps for low income and underserved populations. The core principle is all students have the opportunity to succeed regardless of the neighborhood, schools attended, Parents Educational level or Family Income level. Serving the modern student means confronting full range of barriers faced. Yes, im here to tell you these barriers can and will be overcome. Csu students, faculty, and staff are leading the way. We are bringing individualized learning to scale in a massive system of nearly half a Million Students in this bold action requiring a combination of resources from the university, from the state, and from the federal government. University and state efforts have also kept our fees down for families at an average of 6,759 for californias fulltime graduates, and its been at that rate, constant rate for the past four years. Roughly half the students graduate with no student debt, and those who do borrow, do so at levels well below the national average. Modest increases in federal Financial Aid combined with strategic reallocation of existing resources could help ensure the csu students continue to have resources needed to be successful. For example, and detailed in the written statement, campus paid aid funds are being allocated inequitably. Existing dollars disproportionately go to a few students at high cost institutions. This is a policy area that lawmakers can and in our judgment should address. Likewise, the trio in gear up framework could be strengthened by strategically investing in programs like Summer Bridge focusing more attention on preparation in the s. T. E. M. Disciplines and extending veterans upward bound, for example. These suggestions are modest, yet important and achievable. The combination of federal, state, and University Efforts help students stick through the early phases of an undergraduate education, which is often the time frame of the highest attrition. These coordinated efforts are a tremendous benefit to underserved populations and address the civil rights ramifications of unequal access and unequal support to a degree. When the entire American Public shares in the benefit of better access and Student Success. Through a stronger position and stronger society. We are all in this together. For me, it is professional. It is also intensely personal. I, like chair castro and commissioner actonberg, and so many others are first generation. As an immigrant from argentina, i was low income, and my high school, like yours, did not encourage me to consider college, but i attended the california Community Colleges, and two of the California State University campuses, and the university of california berkley, and did a postdoc at the university of michigan. Well, here i am. Im proud to have had the opportunity to Public Higher Education to be lifted and launched into an interesting and consequential life. Part of my support came from the federal government in what was then called the National Defense student loan. Thank you very much. Thank you, dr. White. Mr. Hogan . Thank you, mr. Chairman, members of the commission its off . Thank you. Im not chancellor brit curwin, but unfortunately due to a family illness, he had to attend to his wife this morning. Im p. J. Hogan. Im happy to be here today. By way of background, the University System of maryland comprises 12 institutions, three research universities, three historically black institutions, four traditional comprehensives, two regional Higher Education centers, one Specialized Research institution and one virtual university. We are, i believe, a microcosm of Higher Education in the United States in a very small geographic state. In that vain, we experience and have a lot of takes on programs im going to speak about. In a moment, ill offer thoughts on the programs and their funding, but let me begin by absolutely thanking the commission for holding these hearings. Its very timely with the reauthorization of the Higher Education act coming up. Chancellor kerwin repeatedly said that it is a National Disgrace that students and families coming from the lowest quartile of income graduate 10 , 9 to 10 chance of knrauding college, whereas students from the upper income quartile graduated 85 to 90 . Thats just unsustainable as a society. While there are many and complex reasons why more low income students do not complete a College Degree, obviously, the volume of Financial Aid dollars, the efficacies of the programs that make these programs available are critical to expanding the success rates of these students. As you know, theres roughly 7,000 students of Higher Education that participate in the federal pell grant and or federal student loan programs. Many of these participate in one or more of the seog, federal work study, and federal perkins loan programs. Ill speak to the three programs and turn my attention to the various trio programs. Let me start by noting that there are very positive impacts of these programs. I know there are proponents of rolling a lot of the programs into one loan, one grant, one work, to make the process more streamlined, and while that sounds great in theory, speaking to our campusbased people on the front line that deal with students, this does not hold true in practice. They are campus based and student based really. The institutions know their students and have flexibility under Program Requirements to award the funds accordingly. Because of that, the relatively small dollars invested in the programs have a tremendously high return relative to retention persistence and Graduation Rates for underrepresented students. These programs level the educational Playing Field for underresourced students and often a deciding factor about a student completing his or her degree, but they are woefully underfunded, and many students are not able to take advantage of that. Ill cite an example of one of our universities. Towsen university, one of our comprehensive university, enrolls over 20,000 undergraduate students. Annual cost of attendance for instate students including housing, you know, room, board, is 24,688. Heres how towsen student aid breaks down from the most recent funding levels of fy14. Pell grants are the largest source for underrepresented low income students. More than 20 million reaching 2,5 2,500 of the 20,000 students. Institutional need based grants directly from the university, thats 16 million impacting 4500 students. State grants through the maryland Higher Education, 11 million, thats 4,000 students. Then scog, 500,000 touching 313,000 students. Work study, 440,000 reaching 337 students. You can see the difference. Just looking at the example of towsen, consider how many more lowincome, underrepresented minority students could be reach the with additional funding or a better formula for better distribution of the funds. As chancellor white pointed out, the formula on some of these, it says, what is the cost of attendance . What is the family expected contribution . If you have a very high cost of attendance and a very low family contribution, where is the money going to go . Its going to go to institutions that have very high tuition. It really does not it makes sense in theory, i guess, if you think about the need there, but it doesnt serve the vast majority of students well. This approach often results in suboptimal funding of education. There are often funds returned to institutions but not allowed to be recycled to other institutions. The proposed allocation formulas from the National Association of student aid administrators and department of education would place greater emphasis on the neediness of each School Students populations unlike the current formula. We want to make it clear that were all for making every program effective, spending every dollar as efficiently as possible in putting the money where it does the most good for students, but given the relatively small contribution of federal work study and scog overall, funding the impact of any change to the efficacy of these programs are minimal. To significantly increase their impact, there needs to be substantial increased funds for these programs. As you know, congress hasnt appropriated new perkins funding since fy 2006. Thinsen is, schools have been collecting and relending funds from the old federal contributions and old institutional matching funds. At this point, i want to quickly turn to the trio programs. They frankly have been a wonderful success. We have participated in many programs, and they have tremendous Graduation Rates. It is clear from our flagship campus at the trio programs have been a vital part in expanding the access and success of lowincome first generation students. But trio programs have also received cuts in recent years. You might say they are flat funded, but if its not keeping up with inflation, its a cut. Let me close by returning to the original observation that as a nation we have to do much more to support Higher Education access and completion for lowincome, underrepresented minority and First Generation College students. Sadly, because of low College Participation and completion rates for low income students, the claim america is the land of opportunity in upwardly mobile society are now beginning to ring hollow. For many, the American Dream has become a nightmare. I thank the commission for taking on this very crucial issue in the future of the country and happy to answer any questions. Thank you, mr. Hogan. Professor dean miller . Good morning, commissioners, thank you for the opportunity to testify today. Im scott miller, director of Financial Aid at the university of virginia. Thomas jefferson founded university of virginia in 1819 with the goal of creating an educated citizenry to advance ideas of democracy. Today theres 11 schools with 15,400 undergraduates and 6,400 graduate students, and approximately 70 of the undergraduate students are virginia residents. The dean and i would like to share today about part of the universitys approach to access, persistence, and graduation and the partial role campus space funds play in the process. Universitys office of undergraduate admission reviews students academic credentials and extracurricular involvement to select the strongest candidates for the student body. The Office Practices a need blind method in which the ability to pay for school is not a criteria to be considered for admission to the university. In the fall of 2003, the uva president challenged Student Financial services to develop a program to change the soso Economic Diversity of the university. Our office suggested meeting 100 of demons