what i've been hearing at ansonia high school and windham high school and the sandwich school, high schools around the state of connecticut is they are seeing dreams crushed and daunted by the cost of college education. and the pages who are here today , our children when we go home at night, can tell us about how devastating these costs are, how their hopes and aspirations for the future are constrained and sometimes crippled financially by the cost of college education. we must bring it down. the cost of tuition and expenses must be reduced. but at the same time we need to find better financing options for our students and that's the reason we are reintroducing today the bank on students emergency loan refinancing act with some changes, more than changes, because we have listened to people who have told us about improvements that could be made in that measure. but most important, we've listened to students, both the high school students and college students, who are telling us about dreams deferred, dreams devastated by the costs of college education, and so we must make sure that the $1.

and what is so inspiring to me in the meetings that i've had in maces like an soni ansonia and m and bridgeport is the drive of our students to embark on college education. they know its value. they're realistic about its quoft. -- its cost. they want do it because they know it is a way of their gaining and their giving back. but many of them have to make compromises. they've been admitted to schools, their first choices, first-rate school, but they cannot put together the package financially that will enable them to go. it is beyond reach financially, even as it is within their grasp intellectually. so they make compromises. maybe the first of other compromises that they will pack- that they will make throughout their lives, as they have to make hard choices. but at that age those compromises should not be driven simply by financial imperatives. they should have the best education that is possible for them, and this country should make it available, not just for their sake but for all of ours. and i've been listening to college students who were leaving at the commencement addresses