Financial Assistance for Higher Education Remarks Announcing the Administration Proposal.

This morning I and the Secretary of HEW, Joe Califano, and several of the key leaders of Congress have a very important announcement to make.

Today the cost of sending a son or daughter to college is an increasingly serious burden on America's low- and middleincome families. From 1967 to 1976, in just a 10-year period, the cost of college education increased 77 percent. This year the average bill for tuition, room, and board in a private college is more than $4,800, and at a typical public university a student would have to pay $2,500 per year for education-related costs.

Increasingly, middle-income families, not just the lower income families, are being stretched to their financial limits by these new and growing costs of a university or college education. No one should be denied the opportunity for a college education for financial reasons alone. And our Nation has long recognized our obligation to help lower income families in this educational area.

Now we must increasingly take steps to help middle-income families as well. This is why I am proposing and announcing today a $1.46 billion increase in the assistance that the Federal Government provides to help with these growing costs, bringing our total student assistance budget to $5.2 billion for fiscal year 1979. We are proposing additional scholarship grants, more part-time jobs for students, and more loans, primarily focused on students from moderate- and middle-income families.

About $900 million will provide tuition grants to students from families with incomes up to $25,000; $70 million will provide expanded eligibility for guaranteed loans for families in the $16,000 to $45,000 income range; and $150 million to provide part-time jobs to college students.

We estimate that more than 5 million college students nationwide will receive financial assistance from the Federal Government in fiscal year 1979, an increase of at least 2 million students over the current year.

The coordinated program that I am proposing, using grants, work study, and loans, will provide more real help than any tax credit and is a far more equitable and efficient way to help middle-income families with tuition and other college costs.

Tuition tax credits would provide benefits to those who do not need them and almost certainly would cost more than the carefully targeted measures that we are proposing today.

Congress must choose between tuition tax credits and the far more beneficial increases in Federal student assistance programs that I am requesting. This Nation cannot afford—and I will not accept-both.

Secretary Califano and I have worked very closely with congressional leaders in developing this program. Senators Willliams, Pell, and Representatives Perkins, Biaggi, Ford, Brademas, and Thompson have cooperated fully with us, along with many others. They support this program and will help to move it rapidly through the Congress.

Now, Secretary Califano and the Members of Congress will explain in more detail this program and would be glad to answer your questions.