mr. dannenberg, i have here some figures for rutgers university that shows the state appropriations going to rutgers in the dollar amount is less now than it was 20 years ago. and over the last more than two decades, it has gone from 65% of the costs being paid by the state in 35% being paid out of tuition and fees to just the opposite. so are those -- are those figures typical of states around the country? >> yes. >> so the pell grants are more important than ever, but significantly smaller. so now let me get to the big picture here. is it established that this cost is the greatest determinant of attending college? >> yes, the number one reason that students cited for not attending or dropping out is cost and financial concerns. >> as i hear from corporate planners and economists, we need more and not fewer college-educated workers in this country. and do any of you know any estimates by economists of the benefit to our economy of having half a million or 1 million or 10 million more college educated workers? >> i don't have those numbers at my fingertips and the economist have this that

mr. dannenberg. mr. heath coming you are recognized for five minutes. >> chairwoman fox, ranking member hinojosa and members of the committee. i'm pleased to be here today to present his testimony on behalf of my institution. on behalf of the 17 professional financial aid staff at my institution, and the nearly 6,000 color grant recipients that we are currently serving we are happy to engage with the committee on how we can improve the color grant program especially in the area of increased flexibility for the nontraditional students encouraging completion, defining and identifying the media students and eliminating fraud and abuse. with almost 1200 community colleges nationwide and the lanes of recipients, these topics are of high importance and extremely relevant to the institutions and students today. increased flexibility for the nontraditional students, many nontraditional students determine their best options are to take less than 12 credit because of family and work response of these. the color gr

mr. dannenberg you were talking earlier. we try to put a maintenance effort into the stimulus. some of that we have out there but you are right to see acg is very small as a set off on that and we had quite a fight just to get that. it was difficult to identify something that would put at risk school's not too and maintain their efforts so when i look at your comment about the education 10 offsets to finance a flexible state and institutional fund for needy students to be given some sort of guarantee could you explain and maybe use the example of what those 10 ideas were and how that would work? >> sure. we have identified grants loans and tax benefits that could be used. let me start with a low-hanging fruit, tax benefits. the hope scholarship tax credit used to limit $120,000 in family income. that is the 80th percentile nationally. the obama administration which i worked 10 extended the higher education tax benefits for -- markedly and i think that is then a laudable accomplishment but it also increased the income level at which people can get an american opportunity tax cre