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Education and Broadband Access

It is imperative that we offer all our young people access to high quality, affordable education.

The costs of colleges have skyrocketed, and students today face crushing debt loads. In Congress, I am fighting to forgive student debt, ease the process for students and graduates to pay off their loans, and provide incentives to colleges to lower their skyrocketing tuition rates.

One of the issues I have been most concerned with, is the issue of internet access and the number of students in our own city that do not have access to internet at home. This issue, commonly referred to as the homework gap, affects around 13% of NYC public school students.  The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated this issue tenfold with the immediate switch to remote learning. That is why I secured billions of dollars for the Emergency Connectivity Fund (ECF) to provide devices that supported quality, high speed internet access to students across the country. While the public health emergency has ended, we know that the homework gap continues to persist which is why I am fighting for additional funding for the ECF.

As a product of the New York City schools, I appreciate the value of a strong public education system and oppose attempts to marginalize it. We must keep our schools open, hire more teachers, and work to save after-school and extracurricular programs.