13th District Congressional Candidates: Making College Affordable
By: Blake Long
Updated: October 26, 2012
In the race for the 13th Congressional District Seat, Republican Rodney Davis is facing Democrat David Gill. Our question: what needs to be done to make college affordable for all students?
David Gill:
"Well I you start by having Pell Grants available to students. When I went to school two thirds of federal dollars were given to college students were in the form of grants and one third was in loans. And, over time that has completely flipped. Its two thirds loans, one thirds grants. And again, I go back to the Paul Ryan budget on 2010 that my opponent has expressed support for. The talks about cutting Pell Grants another 45 percent, so I think that you need to eventually as a society and as a government you need to stand up and say what are our priorities."
Rodney Davis:
"Well we need to ensure that every student has access to college. Be at a community college, be it a 4 year institution. Now i think we need to ensure that the Federal government works with those community colleges to go after those who are unemployed right now. I think it's a travesty that we don't allow people to go to school to better themselves, work toward whatever degree they want while they're on unemployment, because they may not be in an approved training program. In my opinion if someone who is unemployed is willing to invest in their savings, or willing to invest in their spouse's income to better themselves they shouldn't loose their unemployment benefits just because they want to go to school."
David Gill:
"Well I you start by having Pell Grants available to students. When I went to school two thirds of federal dollars were given to college students were in the form of grants and one third was in loans. And, over time that has completely flipped. Its two thirds loans, one thirds grants. And again, I go back to the Paul Ryan budget on 2010 that my opponent has expressed support for. The talks about cutting Pell Grants another 45 percent, so I think that you need to eventually as a society and as a government you need to stand up and say what are our priorities."
Rodney Davis:
"Well we need to ensure that every student has access to college. Be at a community college, be it a 4 year institution. Now i think we need to ensure that the Federal government works with those community colleges to go after those who are unemployed right now. I think it's a travesty that we don't allow people to go to school to better themselves, work toward whatever degree they want while they're on unemployment, because they may not be in an approved training program. In my opinion if someone who is unemployed is willing to invest in their savings, or willing to invest in their spouse's income to better themselves they shouldn't loose their unemployment benefits just because they want to go to school."
