The Next Generation

The Pence Plan for Indiana would shrink public education and limit opportunities for the next generation of Hoosiers. The Pence blueprint accuses the younger generation of being inept, rude and lazy, while at the same time calling for cuts to public schools; it even proposes an elimination of school desegregation laws. 

Congressman Pence has stuck by this blueprint, voting to reduce funding for elementary and primary schools, voting against increasing Pell grants and voting against cutting interest rates for student loans. 

The Blueprint

The younger generation is inept, rude, lazy and lacking “stamina”.

“Consider the frustration one often encounters at the grocery store during the summer months, when high school students working part-time flood the stores: Questions about products or prices are answered with a shrug.” (p.56)

“Worse still, change is counted wrong or food for dinner is left out of the bag, so that one arrives home without what one wandered out to get in the first place.” (p.56)

“Searching the shelves for some item, one sees off in the corner of one’s eye a young person staring blankly, not moving to offer assistance.” (p.56)

“Today’s youth simply does not have the stamina of past generations.” (p.56)

“Now we pay the consequences, with young adults entering the job market without any sense of the value of hard work...” (p.62)

Fight the “public school cartel”.

“Nonetheless, this economic law is being subverted by administrators who would protect what amounts to an Indiana public-school cartel.” (p.54)

School desegregation measures are burdensome and should be repealed

“About a year ago, the Supreme Court in Oklahoma City v. Dowell expressed the view that school desegregation decrees ‘(were) not intended to operate in perpetuity’. That was welcome news to parents and teachers who long ago got the opposite impression.” (p.68)

The Pence Record

Voted to reduce federal funding for elementary and secondary education.

“Amendment that would reduce the overall funding level in the bill from $22.8 billion to $20.5 billion for fiscal 2002.” (H.R. 1, Cox amendment)

Voted against increasing Pell grants six times

H.R. 2669, McKeon amendment
H.R. 2669, College Cost Reduction Act of 2007
H.R. 2669, College Cost Reduction Act of 2007, Conference Report
H.R. 4137, To amend and extend the Higher Education Act of 1965
H.R. 4137, To amend and extend the Higher Education Act of 1965, Conference Report
H.R. 3221, Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2009

Voted against cutting student loan interest rates in half

“The substitute would cut in half the student loan interest rate for borrowers that are most in need. It would provide for year-round Pell grants and repeal the single-holder rule, which requires student borrowers to consolidate their loans with their existing lenders.” (H.R. 609, Miller amendment)