Thank you to everyone for joining. This is a super committee. I read your bios a couple of times and you folks know what you are talking about. In an issue that is very, very important to americans. Expanding access to higher education. We know that the Community Colleges or the engine for the next recovery. We are holding this year in virtual, and compliance with remote proceedings. Before we turn to todays important topic, i want to remind members of a few procedures to help you navigate. This is critical, we are in the midst of votes. So we are running, here are running, there i will leave, Someone Someone will take my place, i will come back. First consistent congratulations, the committee will keep their microphones muted to limit background noise. Members are responsible for unmuting themselves when they see recognition or when recognized for their five minutes. Second, when members are present in the proceeding, they must have their comrades on. If you need to step away to attend another proceeding, or go, please turn your Camera And Audio off rather than locking off. Thirdly, we will be observing in order of security no, seniority, for questioning. Alternating between majority and minority. Beginning with the members of the oversight subcommittee. We have other members who have join today. Finally, without objection, representative evans is authorized to service the chair in the event. I will when i step away from the hearing. I thank you for your patience as we navigate these procedures and as we continue to serve our country together. With, that i will now turn to the important topic of todays hearing. Expanding access to education and his promises. Today, the subcommittee on oversight will examine and important timely topic. Access to affordability of higher education. Study after study has documented how higher education helps americans get good paying jobs, support a decent, home and comfortably raise a family. Higher education is a gateway to the middle class. Yet, for many young people, especially those of color, and from low income backgrounds, significant to education exist. Those have even multiple aging the pandemic. Thanks to congressman jimmy gomez and senior bob mendes, our bill to make tax free through 2025 past in the american rescue plan. We need to examine how else we can help students. We are targeting the students most in need of aid. Either ways to use the Tax Code to enable students, especially low income, wants to receive higher education. That is a question. We also face it were facing a tenant crisis. We theres a generation of War College graduates with crippling student debt. Student Loan Debt constitutes 1. 7 trillion dollars. The average Death Low of american is 38,000 dollars. This often delays recent graduates from buying homes, starting families, and wet leading to the middle class. Its a challenge of our. Time we must understand why and we must offer more relief to those who struggle to pay their education. As we return to normalcy, its also appropriate to look at how the pandemic has affected our institutions. New burdens have been placed on them from covid testing to the expansion of online learning. We must explore how the pandemic affected our higher education. Including the ability to provide affordable education to our students. To help us understand we have i dont use the term lightly. All experts in these matters i thank them for their coming and look forward to their testimonies. First, i will yield five minutes my friends ranking member for pennsylvania for his opening. Statement thank you mister chairman, and thank you for holding this hearing today. I am expanding higher access to education. Republicans have lost the ability to advance themselves to higher education. Back in 2015, republicans supported the making making the american upon Trinity Tax they have also supported the importance of the lifetime learning credit. Recently, republicans and democrats on this committee came together to pass a package of retirement bills that includes an innovative education provision. This provision which we hope will become law incentivizes retiring savings while also reducing Student Loan debt. It will allow employers to make matching contributions into the employees based on the employees paid loan balances. Just last, week with mr. Vargas, we introduced bipartisan legislation called the tax free pill grounds act. This will expand the usage of pell grants on a tax free basis and ensure that students dont lose out of any benefits of existing tax. Credits many americans face the decision between paying down Student Loan debt and saving for retirement. And this legislation would help brokers to do both. When it comes to other Things Congress can do to reduce players, to hire, education we should be focused on supporting a wide variety of ways for americans to advance themselves. That support should be there with a two years associates, agree and apprenticeship, or some other form of professional training. Our coach cannot be a one size fits all. We have to meet americans. Where they are we need to support Choice And Flexibility so that americans can obtain educational advancement without having to put their lives on hold for four years. But the Answer Isnt free call it for everyone or widespread suit cancellation. Studies show that these will not solve the challenges that many americans face. But we have a lot of that can help address barriers that many face in furthering their education and i hope that we can work together on these issues, mister chairman. And that is why im looking forward to hearing from mueller or witnesses but especially from Scott Pull suffer, the president of western governors university, scott will be able to share with the subcommittee about many exciting and innovative things going on at w. G you. W. D. You strides to provide affordable high following degrees to underserved learners. Wgdp you is an online only university that uses a Competency Demand Base dire education. This means students have the flexibility to learn and advance new Coast Work at their own pace in a way that fits the demands that they have in their lives. The huge use a pressure hired occasion is lower barriers to those seeking a College Degree across our country. We can learn from wgdp you success, so thank you for being here, and thank you for all of our witnesses for being here. Mister chairman i yield back. But hear from our panel, thank you mr. Kelly, your words are on target, thank you to our distinguished witnesses for taking the time to appear before us today. Youre discussing a very important issue. I want to introduce our five witnesses and turn to them for their testimony, all testimonies will be part of the record. Our first Record Mister marshall anthony, hes a senior analyst at the center for american progress where he focuses on higher education. Our next witness is dr. Susan wheeler johnston, she is the president and chief executive officer of the national association of business offices. Our third witness is doctor steven rose, my friend from patterson you jerseys the president of the State County Community college on which i served many moons ago, which is in my congressional district. Then we have dr. Susan, i hope im pronouncing that right, shes a professor at the university of michigan. Our final witnesses dr. Scott, paul suffer. The he is the western governor of university, each of your statements will be part of the record in its entirety. I would ask that you summarize your testimony in five minutes, to help you with the time please keep an eye on the clock that should already be pinned to your screen. If you go over your time i will notify with the top of my gavel. Doctor anthony, you may begin. Ranking Member Kellyanne members of the subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to testify today. Im here before you as a researcher on higher education. But i have also lived the failures of the higher Education System. As a young black man from a low income, single parent household, i received the maximum health grand throughout my undergraduate studies to pay for college. I did not have enough financial aid to cover other necessities such as housing, food, textbooks or transportation. Thats meant that when i should have been sleeping i spend countless hours staring at the ceiling worrying about expensive course materials that professors required me to purchase, it also made me cancel my Bill Plan to pay for gas and participated internships. It meant shipping in at times to help my Family Cover Utility bill. A workday yes, but i made it here before you today with a great deal of misfortune. Black, brown, low Income And College students with disabilities never make it to the Graduation Stage to collect a diploma, including those very close to me. A large portion of college students are in many cases working adults, attending college parttime and raising children. Like some of my family, classmates and students i taught, they are juggling demands that would strike you or i as impossible all in the desire to give their family a better life. Never has a College Degree been more necessary to make it in this country. Nearly two thirds of jobs require some form of post secondary education, and yes, our higher Education System is not equipped to do its job. Consider these four troubling facts, first, the Panel Grant is not what it used to be, it is the cornerstone for students from low income backgrounds like myself to help pay for college, at its peak, close to 50 years ago, it won its covered 80 of the cost of attendance at four year institutions. Today, the maximum of war covers less than one third of tuition fees, room and board. Second, a few think Students Today can still work their way through college, think again. In 47 states, on top of any and all financial aid they receive, low income students need to work more than 15 hours per week to pay for a public for your education. Third, Community College operate on half the revenue that public four year receives. That means that Community Colleges dont have the resources they need to adequately serve low income students as well as black and latinx dudes who are more to attend these Community Colleges. And fourth, even before the pandemic, public high education was already in deep trouble. When the pandemic began, only 18 states had fully recovered from cuts made in the wake of the great recession. These are just a few of the reasons why so many students leave college with no Degree And Debt they cannot repay. Black borrowers like myself were hard hit by employment discrimination and have nearly ten times less wealth than white families are more likely to suffer. The system has failed to many students. The ability to Graduation Abe conditional upon a students, such as myself, having good fortune. If you want to call it that. Weve created, and perpetuated a system where that unfortunate reality has been the standard for far too long. The United States can and should do better, no excuses. I ask you today to reinvest in an equitable american dream. By better supporting college students, limiting debt, and investing in Community Colleges and public four year institutions in order to build a higher Education System that actually works for people from all walks of life. Thank you again for the opportunity to testify, and i look forward to answering your questions. Thank you. Johnston, you are now recognized for five minutes. Thank. You chairman pascrell, ranking member kelly, thank you for inviting me to be a part of this important hearing today. I am Susan Wheeler johnston, President And Ceo of an organization that serves officers in college across the country. In march 2020, when the potential impact of the pandemic was being true, not cuba was trying to ensure that if anybody who wanted to continue to hire to k shun could do so and new college could fill because of the crisis. That and, the Pandemic Relief Legislation passed by congress has had made a very meaningful impact and i want to thank your subcommittee and fellow lawmakers for responding to the urgent crisis faced by the higher Education Sector which educates more than 16 million undergraduate students, and is among the top ten largest employers in 40 states. Without this legislation, more students would have had to pause or abandon their studies and across the Country Wouldve seen deeper institutional budget cuts that wouldve meant more loss of jobs, shuddering of programs, and fewer resources for Student Support financial, or otherwise. Colleges face substantial fixed causes costs, that do not abate. Even during a global pandemic. Even when most students were taking classes remotely, colleges and universities still had to maintain their facilities, pay faculty and staff, continue offering services to students and more. They also face significant new spending related to testing, cleaning, and social distancing. And they made unplanned technological investments to improve the Internet Access for Peoples Faculty and staff. As the Nation College preparing for the fall 2021 term, some colleges are optimistic about their financial health. But just as our Nation Experience in an even impact of the pandemic, we are seeing the same in the higher Education Sector. For many the pandemic amplified an already downward trend relating to changing demographics and regional population shift. Among many Community Colleges, small private colleges, and regional public universities, there is concern about fall 2021 enrollment and implication for stuffing and budgeting. However, through it all, institutions and their leaders remain steadfastly committed to their educational missions, and the indispensable lifelong value of education. In the wake of a global health crisis, the outcomes realized by those with post secondary credentials are in stark contrast with those without. As the pandemic put pressure on the clone it on monks across many industries, they were more likely to be employed. Individuals with a high School Education or less faced a 19. 2 Unemployment Rate in april 2020. Compared to an 8. 5 Unemployment Rate among those with bachelors degrees or higher. This diffident of higher education, along with others, should be available for more people, and colleges and universities are contributing to keep college affordable and accessible, despite the high and increasing cost they bear to offer a high quality educational experience. We see this repeatedly in our own surveys. The 2020 study found that the 703 precipitating institutions spent more than 23. 3 billion dollars for their endowments. With about 49 of the funds going directly to student financial aid. Our Discounting Study of 461 private non private colleges show that the last academic here, nearly 90 of Fire Steer undergrads received institutional financial aid, and it covered more than half their tuition fees on average. Beyond these examples, federal policies could be strengthened so that working together to her aides students but the cost of college. For example, charitable givings should be encouraged. Policies that discourage giving and take terrible Resources Investment Income should be reversed. Federal tax credits that ultimately lower the coast of college should be improved. And we are in congress to increase the value of the pell grant, the cornerstone of our Countrys Investment it hired to k shun to ensure more students can access college in the first place. Colleges and universities of lawmakers as well as terrible organizations families and employers must continue making the investments necessary to make college more affordable so we can make more educated decisions. We want to increase College Access and affordability so that more students can experience the lifelong benefits College Degrees offe