This was a forward thinking and really progressive guy. Claiborne Pell, the longtime former Senator from Rhode Island who was as close to nobility as it gets in America. His bloodline included people who fought on both sides of the Revolution, a vice-president and five members of Congress. He was one of the heirs of a tobacco fortune and he married into a family that controls a major supermarket chain.
But he also had a genuine affection for blue-collar Schmos (unlike the faux sympathy exhibited by the Kennedys). Pell died yesterday at 90.
Sen. Pell was big on funding arts, education and the humanities; but is best known for introducing the Pell Grants in the 1970s, which offered subsidies for lower income students to attend university. As well he fought to expand student loans guarantees for everyone else. This was during the Nixon Administration, it should be pointed out, but here was a Democrat who was able to play in Nixon's royal court and win. Sadly, those grants -- one of the key planks of higher education in America for more than 30 years was slashed brutally in 2006 as part of massive budget cuts needed to fund the Iraq misadventure and the grants are about 20% less than what they should be right now.
However, his important contributions in seeking out the best in us rather than the worst is truly noteworthy and for that I salute him. Hopefully, in the painful cuts that Obama will have to make when he takes over the White House in less than three weeks there will be room to bring back Pell funding to where it should be (it would take about $12.5 billion more to do that). In this job market, retraining should be available to the maximum number of people and not just those who can afford it via their own means.
Having physically fit students is important (hence the need for sports and recreation) but also important is developing the arts and social sciences. We need well rounded people who can enjoy the opera or live theatre as much as NASCAR or ice hockey. And they need to come from all classes, not just segregated into one group that likes this and another that likes that. Pell understood that.
If we only had that kind of vision in Canada. If only we had someone who saw the big picture and saw the long-term rather than short term expediencies. Iggy may have a better idea about that but even he's not quite fully there. Of course, Harper is content to be "a fruit," as he himself put it, and is willing to see younger Canadians turn into fruits as well.
And we all know what happens when we squeeze most fruits.
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