This week congressional leaders and President Obama are working on a budget deal likely to affect the future of our nation for generations to come. As a nation, we are making important decisions about how we conduct our business and how we invest in our future. Proposals being considered such as reducing the size of the grants available to our most financially disadvantaged students, or increasing the number of credits required to qualify for Pell, will affect our committed and working students.As our leaders work though budget negotiations, I urge them to keep their focus on the future and think about how they will ensure that the United States will continue to lead the global economy. What we know as the American Dream is rooted in our ability to innovate and provide opportunity for all. Those very concepts are in jeopardy if we continue to fall behind in educational attainment and cut funding for key programs such as the Pell Grant, which helps financially disadvantaged students pay for college.
