Full Text of HR0694 101st General Assembly
HR0694 101ST GENERAL ASSEMBLY |
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| 1 | | HOUSE RESOLUTION
| 2 | | WHEREAS, The American Association of Community Colleges | 3 | | (AACC) has identified 1,132
community colleges in the United | 4 | | States, and 980 are public colleges; and
| 5 | | WHEREAS, Nearly half of all undergraduates in the United | 6 | | States, or just over 13 million or 25% of
all graduates, enroll | 7 | | in community colleges; and
| 8 | | WHEREAS, 6,000 students from 10 community colleges in | 9 | | California, Michigan, Nebraska,
North Carolina, South Dakota, | 10 | | Texas, Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming, responding to a
recent | 11 | | North Carolina State University research team, identified the | 12 | | top two reasons they find
it difficult to complete community | 13 | | college; the top two reasons, tied at 34% each, were having to | 14 | | work and not being able
to afford the expense; and
| 15 | | WHEREAS, In 1965, the average public college tuition was | 16 | | $256 annually; today, the
average annual public community | 17 | | college tuition has risen to $3,347; and | 18 | | WHEREAS, Individuals earning at least a two-year community | 19 | | college degree will earn nearly
$400,000 more over their career | 20 | | than a person with a high school diploma; and |
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| 1 | | WHEREAS, 44 million people in the U.S. are currently in | 2 | | $1.48 trillion debt, and attending
a community college could | 3 | | cut down on cost and indebtedness, even for those choosing to
| 4 | | transfer credits to a four-year institution; and | 5 | | WHEREAS, The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics cites that | 6 | | some of the
highest paying jobs in the United States will | 7 | | increase over the decade and will require at least a
two-year | 8 | | college degree; and | 9 | | WHEREAS, Economies once built on low skilled industries, | 10 | | specifically in the south, must
now compete globally for jobs | 11 | | that require training beyond high school; and | 12 | | WHEREAS, In 1944, U.S. Congress passed the G.I. Bill, which | 13 | | provided free higher education to
millions of World War II | 14 | | veterans and was the most successful legislation in modern | 15 | | history,
laying the groundwork for the post war economic boom | 16 | | and growth of the middle class; and
| 17 | | WHEREAS, The state of California did not begin to charge | 18 | | for a college education until the
1980s; and
| 19 | | WHEREAS, Twenty states offer various forms of free | 20 | | community college, including Arkansas,
California, Delaware, | 21 | | Hawaii, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Minnesota, Memphis, |
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| 1 | | Nevada,
New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Tennessee, | 2 | | West Virginia, and Washington; therefore, be it
| 3 | | RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE | 4 | | HUNDRED FIRST GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that | 5 | | we urge all municipalities and state governments to provide
| 6 | | community college education at no cost; and be it further | 7 | | RESOLVED, That we urge Congress to pass legislation
| 8 | | requiring all states to make community college free and to | 9 | | provide the necessary supportive
funding to assure its reality; | 10 | | and be it further | 11 | | RESOLVED, That we recognize the increased burden this will
| 12 | | place on our educational system and urge that two years at a | 13 | | public university or
college should be subsidized at a similar | 14 | | rate to a local community college; and be it further | 15 | | RESOLVED, That we recognize the effect that this could have
| 16 | | on historically black colleges and universities, as a | 17 | | disproportionate share of their students
struggle | 18 | | economically, and to preserve the heritage and history of these | 19 | | culturally
significant educational institutions, we must also | 20 | | increase funding to these institutions to
support their | 21 | | scholarship funds to maintain necessary enrollment; and be it | 22 | | further
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| 1 | | RESOLVED, That suitable copies of this resolution be | 2 | | delivered to the President of
the United States, the Vice | 3 | | President of the United States, all members of the United | 4 | | States House
of Representatives and the United States Senate, | 5 | | and other federal and state government officials and agencies | 6 | | as appropriate.
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