Education
[WASHINGTON, DC] – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09) today made the following statement regarding the invitation of Pellissippi State Community College student Chelsey Davis to sit with First Lady Michelle Obama at tonight’s State of the Union Address:
U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen of Memphis calls the Tennessee Promise last dollar scholarship program for community college and state technical centers “a fraud.”
And last week he said a plan by President Barack Obama to model a federal program on Tennessee Promise probably won’t get past the Republican majorities in the U.S. Senate and House.
Cohen has been critical of Tennessee Promise from the moment it was proposed in 2014 by Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam.
At a townhall meeting Downtown last week, Cohen remained sharply critical of the program and Haslam personally.
U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen of Memphis calls the Tennessee Promise last dollar scholarship program for community college and state technical centers “a fraud.”
And last week he said a plan by President Barack Obama to model a federal program on Tennessee Promise probably won’t get past the Republican majorities in the U.S. Senate and House.
Cohen has been critical of Tennessee Promise from the moment it was proposed in 2014 by Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam.
At a townhall meeting Downtown last week, Cohen remained sharply critical of the program and Haslam personally.
[MEMPHIS, TN] – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09) today introduced the Putting Our Veterans Back to Work Act to help reduce veteran unemployment and train our nation’s heroes for the good-paying, high-demand jobs being created by innovative American small businesses. Congressman Cohen’s legislation would reauthorize the Veterans Retraining Assistance Program (VRAP), which helps train unemployed veterans for careers in high-demand occupations, through 2018.
[WASHINGTON, DC] – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09) supports President Obama’s intention to expand access to higher education, which the President plans to announce in Tennessee today. Congressman Cohen is pleased that many aspects of the President’s plan are similar to the Tennessee HOPE Education Lottery scholarship program that Congressman Cohen, as a Tennessee State Senator, led the 2-decade fight to create. The Tennessee Education Lottery has provided more than $3 billion in education funding to Tennessee students.
[WASHINGTON, DC] – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09) was sworn into the 114th Congress by Speaker of the House John Boehner in the U.S. Capitol today. The swearing-in marks the official beginning of Congressman Cohen’s fifth term representing the Ninth District of Tennessee in Congress.
[WASHINGTON, DC] – Congressmen Steve Cohen (TN-09), Raul Grijalva (AZ-03), and Mark Takano (CA-41) today called on U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan to closely scrutinize a proposal by Educational Credit Management Corporation (ECMC) to purchase a total of 56 campuses owned by defunct for-profit Corinthian Colleges Inc., which agreed to sell or close all of its campuses after failing to address concerns about its educational outcomes and recruiting practices.
A group of democratic Congressmen wrote a letter to Education Secretary Arne Duncan Tuesday urging him to "carefully scrutinize" the proposed sale of for profit college behemoth Corinthian Colleges to a student loan debt collector with a troubled record. The debt collector, ECMC, has been criticized widely for hounding bankrupt students in court and using extreme arguments to deny borrowers any relief on their loans.