{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://mitchell.house.gov/media/press-releases/mitchell-statement-reauthorization-higher-education-act-markup", "Mitchell Statement on Reauthorization of Higher Education Act Markup", "2017-12-12", "2017", "2017-12", "Republican", "House", "MI", "Paul Mitchell", "M001201", "mitchell.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Washington, D.C.\u00a0\u2013 Today, Representative Mitchell (MI-10) released the following statement on the markup of the Higher Education Reauthorization:\n\t\u201cEducation is a deeply personal issue to me.\u00a0\u00a0Growing up, my family lived paycheck to paycheck.\u00a0 I took a risk and was the first of my entire family to go to college.\u00a0 I was lucky that my risk paid off; a quality education helped me reach my goals and live the American dream,\u201d said\u00a0Representative Mitchell.\n\t\u201cToday, education and the path to upward mobility looks markedly different than it did when I began my career: the average student is saddled with $37,172 of student loan debt and 8 million borrowers are in default.\u00a0 The typical American gets one shot at pursuing higher education; they cannot afford to take a gamble on a program or degree that will not return their investment. Unfortunately, students have no way of finding seemingly basic information like what they can expect to pay out of pocket and how students fare in the labor market after leaving college.\u00a0\n\tThis information would have been made available for all students with the passage of my bill, the College Transparency Act.\u00a0 Transparency has long been a priority of mine, and it is a priority for the over 100 organizations that have endorsed the College Transparency Act.\u00a0 The PROSPER Act attempts to make use of the theories behind the College Transparency Act, but it only makes student outcome data available for low-income students that rely on federal assistance to pay for higher education.\u00a0 That does not provide adequate information since it only addresses a small portion of the student population.\n\t\u201cWith today\u2019s legislation, we had a rare opportunity to make meaningful change, and we fell short.\u00a0 We need to make serious change to provide accurate and complete information for consumers. I voted in favor of the PROSPER Act because ultimately, it is a step forward from the status quo that higher education in this country so urgently needs.\u00a0 Unfortunately, it falls short in truly allowing American consumers to make the best decision for them in pursuing higher education, upward mobility, and long-term success.\u00a0 I will continue to advocate for transparency in higher education.\u201d", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://mitchell.house.gov/media/press-releases/mitchell-statement-reauthorization-higher-education-act-markup"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.6282652504742146, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}