Education
Nothing is more fundamental to the development of our children than a quality education. As the first member of my family to graduate from college, I know first-hand the power that an education has on a young person's life and the opportunities it unlocks. Beyond the impact it can have on individual lives, ensuring that all of our children have access to a quality and affordable education helps lay the groundwork for a stronger economy in the 21st Century.
I am committed to ensuring that every young person is able to reach their full potential. I have made improving educational opportunities a top priority throughout my career in public service, from fighting to uphold the promises of No Child Left Behind, to increasing federal financial assistance, to ensuring accountability, to expanding the opportunities that are open to students. I am also working to improve the competitive future of the country through increased math and science education.
I believe that local communities and school districts must have the resources needed to ensure that our children learn in a safe environment that is adequately equipped to prepare them for the global marketplace. That means good teachers, safe schools, modern classrooms and the tools to protect children from online threats. Any child or teenager who is willing to work hard should have an opportunity to continue their education, which is why I have fought for increased Pell Grants and low-cost student loans to give every young person the same opportunity to go to college.
Highlights
- Helping schoolchildren affected by foreclosures -- As part of the 2009 economic recovery package, secured $70 million in federal funding for a program to help schoolchildren uprooted by foreclosures to remain in their schools and receive educational assistance. As a result of the nationwide foreclosure crisis, potentially millions of students, including 50,000 in New Jersey, could see their families lose their homes, finding themselves floating from school to school.
- Internet safety education -- Author of the School And Family Education about the Internet (SAFE Internet) Act to support and develop programs nationwide to educate schoolchildren, teachers and parents about keeping the Internet safe for children and teens.
- Science and technology education -- Author of provisions enacted into law as part of the 2007 America COMPETES Act to increase the number of women and minorities in the science and technology fields and aid in revitalizing high school science labs in rural communities. Provision originally included in Menendez's Partnership for Access to Laboratory Science (PALS) Act.
- Access to higher education -- As someone who owes his college education to the existence of Pell Grants, a Congressional champion of robust Pell Grant and Perkins Loan programs. Strong supporter of economic recovery package provision to include additional $15.6 billion in Pell Grant funding, increasing FY09 Pell Grants by 131 percent. Strong supporter of the Higher Education Opportunity Act, enacted in 2008. That law increases Pell Grants from $4,800 to $6,000 for 2008 and up to $8,000 for 2014; increases annual loan limits under the Perkins Loan program to $5,500 per year for undergraduates and $8,000 per year for graduate students; and provides more accountability for schools who have had the greatest cost increases, among other provisions.
- Holocaust education -- Sponsor of the Simon Wiesenthal Holocaust Education Act, which would give a boost to programs and institutions that teach about the Holocaust and its lessons. Under the legislation, educational institutions would be able to receive federal grants to educate about the Holocaust. The bill is named in honor of Simon Wiesenthal, the Holocaust survivor who devoted his life to seeking justice for the six million Jews murdered by the Nazis.
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