Keeping College Affordable

In 2005, we launched multiple email campaigns encouraging our supporters to lobby Congress to block cuts to Pell Grants and other education program cuts proposed in President Bush's 2006 budget. The first, in October 2005, urged supporters to ask Congress to reject a proposed a drastic cut to college loan and grant programs. Thanks in part to our efforts, the Senate reduced the severity of the cuts and the House put off voting on them.

In November 2005, we asked supporters to demand that their representatives reject the entire program/tax cut package. Coupled with the actions taken by others in the progressive community — particularly our partners in the Emergency Campaign for America's Priorities (ECAP) — the Revitalizing Education Project played a role in forcing Congress to reject some of the proposed program and tax cuts.

In January 2006, working with our coalition partners in ECAP, we flooded Capitol Hill with tens of thousands of phone calls to oppose an immoral budget that cut $12.7 billion in student loans. To complement our online effort, we produced a state-by-state report [1] that highlighted the devastating effects of Bush's student loan cuts.