U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings released the following statement today:

"With its approval of the Higher Education Amendments Act of 2005 (HEA), the U.S. Senate Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee has steered our schools and students on a course toward the bright future that President Bush and I envision for them.

"This future depends heavily upon mathematics, science and technology—more schools offering these subjects and more students studying them. This has long been a priority of the President, and the HEA contains two measures vital to achieving it.

"The Math/Science Scholarship program is designed to encourage secondary students to take more rigorous and challenging coursework to prepare for college and their careers. And the new SMART [National Science and Mathematics Access to Retain Talent] Grant program offers financial support to Pell Grant—eligible college juniors and seniors specializing in those fields. I want to thank Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist [R-TN] for his leadership.

"We must also work to ensure that a family's income level does not pose a barrier to this bright future. I applaud Chairman Michael Enzi [R-WY] for his Pro-GAP proposal, which utilizes money saved from student loan programs to increase grant aid to low-income students. Finally, the HEA makes permanent the President's teacher loan forgiveness program, so that more highly qualified teachers may choose to serve in low-income communities.

"The Higher Education Amendments Act of 2005 deserves the support of the full Senate."

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