'Congratulations, here's $1 million!'Ryan neglects to point out that he voted 'no'

"I am pleased to inform you," wrote U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan, R-WI, 1st District, of a $1 million federal grant. "Please do not hesitate to contact me if you need help in the future. I am always happy to respond and be of service to you."

That letter, sent on Nov. 29 to the Opportunities Industrialization Center of Racine (OIC), announced approval of a four-year, $250,000 per year grant from the U.S. Department of Education to provide college prep tutoring to 60 students at Case and Park High Schools.

The one fact not included in Ryan's letter, however, was this: He voted against the bill that included the funds for OIC. The list of grant recipients -- available at the time the bill came up for a vote -- also includes UW-Parkside and UW-Whitewater, both in Ryan's district.

The grant will fund the Upward Bound program, aiding high school students from low-income families, from families in which neither parent holds a bachelor’s degree and low-income first generation military veterans. The goal is to increase high school graduation rates and the rate at which participants enroll in and graduate from institutions of post-secondary education.

According to Claudius Adebayo, OIC's executive director, the grant is "a true story of the big catch that got away, and got caught again."

It happened like this:

-- Nov. 6, 2006: OIC submitted its grant application.
-- May 17, 2007: OIC's grant is rejected; 988 applications (asking for $322 million) were eligible, but the $257 million available could only fund 775 of them.
-- June 12, 2007: Rep. George Miller, D-CA, introduced HR 2669, the College Cost Reduction Act, to reduce higher education lender subsidies by $19 billion, while using some of the savings to provide education grants and student loans.
-- July 11, 2007: the House passed HR 2669, 273 to 149. Ryan voted against the bill, along with 148 other Republicans.
-- July 20, 2007: The Senate passed the bill, 78-18. All the nays were Republicans.
-- Sept. 27, 2007: President Bush signs it into law.

"This is great news for us at OIC and for the community," said Adebayo.

The program will provide academic instruction in mathematics, laboratory sciences, composition, literature and foreign languages. It will also support tutoring, counseling, mentoring, cultural enrichment and work study programs for participants.

UPDATE: Rep. Ryan says he voted against HR 2669 because it creates new entitlement programs that threaten to burden future generations of taxpayers with "perpetual debt."

"While the bill claims some of these entitlement programs will 'sunset,' experience has taught us that once Washington creates an entitlement it never ends. If these new entitlement programs continue, they would add another $32 billion over five years onto already-unsustainable entitlement costs," he said.

Ryan said the bill appears to do more for college graduates than assist college hopefuls, and notes that the student loan interest rate cut only lasts for one year.

"The soaring cost of higher education makes it difficult for many students and their parents to afford college today without going into significant debt. Unfortunately, this bill doesn’t get to the heart of the problem – tuition hikes. It may be well-intentioned, but it’s poor policy that will end up expanding entitlement spending and government bureaucracy. There are better ways for Congress to make college more affordable, and this bill would do more harm than good," Ryan said.