Tax Breaks for Rigell, Education Cuts for You

RICHMOND, VA -- Since coming to Congress, Scott Rigell has voted for a partisan agenda that tried to cut $115 billion from education over the next decade including, funding cuts for low-income schools, cutting two million students from Head Start and slashing Pell Grants.   

"Everyone knows that the key to succeeding in a global economy is a great education.unfortunately, no one seemed to tell Congressman Rigell," says, Ashley Bauman, Press Secretary for the Democratic Party of Virginia.

"As middle class families continue to struggle with skyrocketing tuition prices and underfunded schools, Scott Rigell continues to play partisan games Virginia's families.  When given the chance to protect education funding, he chose instead to protect tax breaks for oil companies.  Any Congressman who would vote to cut early childhood education, K-12 education, and higher education, while at the same time voting to give himself a bigger tax break, is clearly out of touch with the needs of his district." 

Background:

Education Cuts: The FY2013 House Republican Budget cuts funding for the Department of Education by more than $115 billion over a decade. As a result, Pell Grants for 9.6 million students would fall by more than $1,000, and over 1 million students would lose federal education support altogether over the next decade. In addition, roughly 2 million slots in the "Head Start" early childhood education program - one of the most successful education programs ever enacted - would be eliminated over the next decade.

Republicans Voted to Cut Pell Grants: H.R. 1, a Continuing Appropriations bill which would have funded the government for the remainder of 2011, would have slashed the maximum Pell Grant by $845 - from the current maximum of $5,550 to $4,705. This GOP bill would have lowered the amount of aid that 9.4 million college students receive. The bill passed the House but failed in the Senate. Link to vote: Vote #147.

Republicans voted against cutting oil and gas subsidies instead of education to balance the budget: Republicans voted against prioritizing subsidies for major oil and gas companies and corporate jets as spending cuts before cutting education spending to help balance the budget.The motion would have amended the underlying bill "to make sure it raised taxes on corporate jets and oil companies before cutting funding for education." [Buffalo News, 7/30/11; CQ Floor Votes, 7/29/11] The motion failed 183-244. [S. 627, Vote #676, 7/29/11]

Reducing Education Funding Used by More Than 50,000 Public Schools: H.R. 1 cut almost $700 million (about 5%) from Title I education funding. This would have harmed the more than 50,000 public schools around the country that receive Title I funding. Title I funding is used by schools with large numbers of poor children to help their students succeed in achieving student academic standards.