Claire McCaskill on Education Democratic Sr Senator; previously state Auditor

Increase student financial aid, like Pell Grants

Josh Hawley (R): Unclear, but says universities waste billions of public funds and leave families with billions of debt, giving students "worthless degrees" and indoctrinating them in far-left thinking.

Claire McCaskill (D): Yes. Co-sponsored Elizabeth Warren proposal to refinance student loans. Supports increasing Pell Grants.

Restore College Tuition Tax Credit as middle class tax break

“It’s a shame that Jim Talent chose to prioritize big oil’s profits over Missouri families who are trying to send their children to college,” said McCaskill. “Adding insult to injury, he and the Republicans are now breaking their promise to restore the College Tuition Tax Credit. Missouri families need more than empty promises, they need relief.“

In 2003, 64,506 Missouri students and their families relied on the College Tuition Tax Deduction. The failure to extend the tax credit equates to nothing less than a tax increase on those families.

McCaskill concluded, ”I call on Senator Talent to do the right thing & lead the effort to restore this vital tax credit.“

Expand pre-school and Head Start

Head Start has played an important role in helping low-income children access more educational opportunities. But Head Start now only serves three out of every five eligible children, leaving millions of children without the resources and hope to escape poverty.

Expand Pell Grants and HOPE Scholarships

• Make College Tuition Affordable for All Missourians.
• Increase Pell Grants and HOPE Scholarships.
• Encourage Direct Loan Lending instead of via companies like Sallie Mae
• Close the Gap in Science and Math.

Scholarships to fill science & math slots in public schools

Our public schools are currently facing a shortage of good teachers. To help the shortage, Claire supports forgiving the student loans of highly qualified public service teachers who commit to five years in financially struggling schools.

Education dollars wasted on bureaucracy

Voted YES on additional $10.2B for federal education & HHS projects.

Proponents support voting YES because:

Rep. OBEY: This bill, more than any other, determines how willing we are to make the investment necessary to assure the future strength of this country and its working families. The President has chosen to cut the investments in this bill by more than $7.5 billion in real terms. This bill rejects most of those cuts.

Opponents recommend voting NO because:

Rep. LEWIS: This bill reflects a fundamental difference in opinion on the level of funding necessary to support the Federal Government's role in education, health and workforce programs. The bill is $10.2 billion over the President's budget request. While many of these programs are popular on both sides of the aisle, this bill contains what can rightly be considered lower priority and duplicative programs. For example, this legislation continues three different programs that deal with violence prevention. An omnibus bill is absolutely the wrong and fiscally reckless approach to completing this year's work. It would negate any semblance of fiscal discipline demonstrated by this body in recent years.

Veto message from President Bush:

This bill spends too much. It exceeds [by $10.2 billion] the reasonable and responsible levels for discretionary spending that I proposed to balance the budget by 2012. This bill continues to fund 56 programs that I proposed to terminate because they are duplicative, narrowly focused, or not producing results. This bill does not sufficiently fund programs that are delivering positive outcomes. This bill has too many earmarks--more than 2,200 earmarks totaling nearly $1 billion. I urge the Congress to send me a fiscally responsible bill that sets priorities.

Don't count combat pay against free school lunch.

A bill to amend the National School Lunch Act and the Child Nutrition Act of 1966 to require the exclusion of combat pay from income for purposes of determining eligibility for child nutrition programs and the special supplemental nutrition program for women, infants, and children.