Henry Cuellar for Congress | Proven Leadership for Texas

Advancing Education in Texas

Congressman Henry Cuellar has been an advocate for Texas Education before coming to Congress in 2005. After 14 years as a Texas State Representative and Texas Secretary of State, Henry Cuellar understands how important education is to children and adults throughout Texas. That's why in just the past year alone, he's worked hard to secure over $5 billion in federal funding for Texas public schools, teachers, public colleges and universities.

In 2009, Congressman Cuellar worked diligently with the U.S. Secretary of Education to secure $2 billion in Recovery Act funding for Texas' public schools. This vital funding helped the state stabilize its education funding and resources during the economic recession. Known as the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund, this crucial funding helped brace the state against the threat of teacher lay-offs, pay cuts and drastic reductions in resources.

Since February 2009, Congressman Cuellar has helped secure over $4.9 billion in federal funding for education throughout Texas thanks to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Equally as important, Congressman Cuellar has helped pass critical legislation in Congress which makes education more affordable for all Americans. Since serving in Congress beginning in 2005, he's helped pass the following bills in Congress which are unprecedented measures to expand access to quality, affordable education:

Making College More Affordable, by Expanding Student Aid by $20 Billion: The College Cost Reduction and Access Act contains the single largest investment in college financial assistance since the 1944 GI Bill, including increasing the maximum Pell Grant by $1,090 -- to $5,400 -- by 2012, cutting interest rates in half on need-based college loans, and providing loan repayment for those who enter public service careers. The President signed the bipartisan bill on September 27, 2007 (PL 110-84).

Expanding College Access/Reforming Student Loan Industry: The Higher Education Opportunity Act builds on the 2007 law with additional steps to make college more accessible and affordable, including giving colleges incentives to rein in tuition increases, making textbook costs more manageable, and simplifying the federal student aid application process. The bill also cleans up abuses in the student loan industry. The President signed the bipartisan bill on August 14, 2008 (PL 110-315).

Continued Access to Student Loans: The Ensuring Continued Access to Student Loans Act provides students with continued, uninterrupted access to federally guaranteed student loans, despite the current credit crisis and economic hardships. The President signed the bipartisan bill on May 7, 2008 (PL 110-227).

Improving Head Start: The Improving Head Start Act expands and improves the successful Head Start early childhood education program, and includes strong accountability measures to ensure programs are succeeding. The President signed the bipartisan bill on December 12, 2007 (PL 110-134).

Green School Construction: The 21st Century Green High-Performing Public School Facilities Act authorizes $6.4 billion for green school construction projects, including modernization, renovation, and repair projects that improve the teaching and learning climate, health and safety, and energy efficiency of school buildings. 

Strengthening Environmental Education: The No Child Left Inside Act improves federal environmental education programs, including requiring state academic content standards, takes steps to place qualified, expert teachers in the classroom, and creating a grant program to solicit proposals to incorporate environmental education programs into school curricula. 

Real Results Over Two Decades

As State Representative, Henry Cuellar served as one of the two most senior members of the House Appropriations Committee. During his last two sessions in office, Henry served as the Chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Education, the committee that determines the budget for public education and higher education. His leadership and vision helped increase state funding of public schools by $8.3 billion between 1994-2000.

The legislature also funded teacher pay raises, teacher health insurance and retirement benefits, reading initiatives, expanded Headstart, Pre-Kindergarten, Kindergarten, and Ninth Grade Dropout Prevention Programs. For the first time, the legislature also funded construction of school facilities. Under Cuellar’s strong leadership, Texas set the model for the nation by not only investing the majority of budget surpluses in public schools, but by also setting high academic standards for learning and accountability measures. This strategy produced real results. The National Educational Goals Panel credited Texas as one of two states in the nation that made the greatest gains in student achievement since the early 1990s.

Increased Education Funding

During Henry Cuellar's time in the state legislature, higher education received the largest increase of state funding in the last 20 years. Moreover, student access to higher education increased by Cuellar's landmark legislation that established the $300 million T.E.X.A.S. (Toward Excellence Access and Success) Grant program. By demanding more action from higher education institutions, there are now more students enrolling and graduating from colleges and universities. In Texas, there are a growing number of students enrolled in higher education who are obtaining more degrees, certificates, and workforce education than ever in the state's history.

Henry Cuellar worked hard to close the gap in student college participation rates by getting more and more students enrolled in college. He also pushed, with success, making the Recommended High School Program (college preparatory courses) the standard curriculum in high school. Henry Cuellar worked to ensure that all students and their parents understood the benefits of a college degree and what is needed to prepare academically and financially for higher education. Henry helped passed the Texas Tomorrow Fund to help parents save for their children’s college education.

Higher Education

Henry Cuellar worked to increase the quality of higher education in Texas making it among the best in the country. Henry expects public schools and higher education to work together in partnership to better educate children. He believes universities and colleges should do more outreach programs to help communities find practical solutions to problems confronting them. In Laredo, Henry Cuellar-who co-authored the tuition-revenue bond legislation-led the effort to build Texas A&M International University and established the Laredo Community College and Texas State Technical College partnership. Furthermore, Henry Cuellar helped establish the U.T. Health Science Center in San Antonio branch campus in Laredo, thus changing higher education in Laredo forever.

His passion for education is authentic and proactive, sponsoring landmark education legislation including:

• Merging the South Texas universities into the Texas A&M University System and the U.T. University System
• Advancing international studies, educational and cultural exchange programs between Texas and other countries
• Established economic centers to study border economies at various border universities
• Promoted greater understanding and friendship between Texas and Mexico
• Encouraged the adoption of a curriculum of international studies and foreign languages in public school
• Directed the study of the U.S. Constitution, Bill of Rights and the Declaration of Independence in our public schools
• Raised the punishment for those possessing a prohibited weapon in a school
• Required institutions of higher education to report their crime statistics to better inform their students and parents 
• Increased the Higher Education Assistance Funds (HEAF) funding that provided more funding to higher education institutions
• Increased funding for Mexican American and African-American Studies at U.T. Austin and other universities
• Prioritized doctorate programs for border universities to increase educational opportunities
• Dramatically increased funding for border universities through the South Texas Border Initiative
• Funded a hypertension study at several universities to help improve the health of Texans
• Funded the UT Health Science Center at San Antonio South Texas Initiative to expand primary health care, allied health, nursing, and dentistry in South Texas; established and funded the Public Policy Clinic at U.T. Austin to help study practical community problems
• Directed higher education institutions to operate more efficiently to save energy costs
• Authorized children from poor performing public schools to transfer to a better performing public school to give them a choice; directed universities to have uniform admissions and reporting procedures to facilitate students applying to college
• Provided peace officers disabled in the line of duty free college tuition
• Authorized issuance of revenue bonds for the construction and remodeling of universities buildings; expanded the TexShare library consortium to allow rural and economically disadvantaged schools to share books electronically with other schools that are better equipped 
• Provided performance evaluation of tenured faculty at universities and colleges to provide students with better education; provided an efficient state formula funding for doctoral students at universities
• Directed universities to address small business research and development to help small businesses; created the Faculty Enhancement Fund for Generalist Physicians to produce more doctors that will stay in their communities
• Established and funded scholarships for college students to participate in out-of-state internship programs in Washington, D.C.
• Created and funded the Regional Drought Relief Center at TAMIU to help Texas with drought conditions; funded many new programs at many universities; created the TEXAS Grant Program, the largest scholarship program in Texas history, to allow more students to go to college; enhanced career and technology programs at public schools to better educate and train high students
• Provided tobacco settlement dollars for health programs at universities to increase health education; authorized the Texas Tomorrow Fund (saving for college) for graduate and professional programs to help students with pre-paid tuition for graduate and professional education
• Strengthened the Texas Guaranteed Student Loan Corporation and its programs to better provide financial aid to college students; shortened the time for approval of construction projects authorized by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board to speed up construction of universities buildings
• Provided a constitutional amendment relating to the investment of the permanent university fund that provided U.T. and Texas A&M millions and millions of new dollars to improve education; established and funded U.T. Health Science Center of San Antonio branch campus in Laredo to improve health education for the border
• Maximized public school funding to be spent in classroom instruction instead of administration; increased funding for adult education to educate more adults to become productive citizens; provided funding to enhance the Texas Education Agency Statewide Technology Initiative to provide technology to improve education for public school students and educators
• Funded the Texas After-School Initiative to provide students with after-school activities

Enhancing Local Literacy: Established and funded the Texas Education Agency program to provide matching funds for public school library books purchases to increase the number of books in school libraries

Decreasing Drop Outs:  Directed the Texas Education Agency to conduct a high school dropout rate study to change the way dropouts are counted to better reflect true numbers

More Community Colleges: Provided state funding to help new public community and junior colleges open new campuses throughout Texas to provide rural communities with institutes of higher learning. He also helped secure extra funding for fast growing community and junior colleges to help them deal with their growth to avoid higher local property taxes

More Accountability: Requested more accountability for how state dollars are spent at community and technical colleges to provide more efficiency in development education. As a state lawmaker he also helped ensure more accountability in spending at university academic programs to better educate students and save taxpayers dollars.

Helping At-Risk Students: Secured funding to universities and colleges to retain more economically disadvantaged students to ensure they graduate by adjusting the formula funding for all state universities

Safer University Living: Directed all universities to immediately correct fire hazards at student dorms to protect and enhance student quality of living at Texas' public colleges and universities. 

Under Henry Cuellar’s leadership as Chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Education provided the largest increase of funding for universities and community colleges in the last 20 years. As the Chairman for the House Appropriations Subcommittee for Education, Henry Cuellar successfully helped push increases in public school funding. The state dollars allocated per school district in the border counties have increased steadily from $2.2 billion in 1991-1992 to $3.2 billion in 1998-1999. The total amount of public school state expenditures for these eight years is $22.2 billion for border school districts. 

As Chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee for Education, Henry Cuellar led the way for a dramatic increased of funding for border institutions of higher education. In 1990 the total funding for border higher education institutions was $251 million and the funding increased to over $691 million in 2000. Border health institutions increased from $96.3 million in 1990 to $131 million in 2000. Henry Cuellar committed his public service career to seeing that every child gets the best education possible to prepare him or her to compete and succeed in the 21st century. In this information age, the education of every child is critical to our future prosperity and security. Education is one of Cuellar’s top priorities and he will work to increase the federal government's contribution to our state's education system to more than the 2.5 cents it currently invests. But investment is not the only answer - standards and accountability are vital components of our system and must be included. 

As a State Representative and Secretary of State Henry established a High School Scholarship Program where he would give part of his salary as a scholarship to a student in each of the high schools in Laredo. Henry also established the “Youth of the Year Program with the Laredo Border Patrol and KGNS TV which provided an all expense paid trip to Austin to meet the Governor, the Legislature and other statewide officials. He also established with the Laredo Border Patrol and KGNS TV the “Youth of the Month and Head of the Class” program to recognize talented students.

Henry has also served in leadership positions that helped improve education in Texas as Chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Education, Vice-Chair of the House Higher Education Committee, Co-chair of the T.E.X.A.S Grant Program Oversight Committee, and the Attorney General’s School Violence Task Force. Henry has also been a government professor at the Laredo Community College and an International Commercial Law Professor at Texas A&M International University Master Program for International Trade. With five degrees, Dr. Henry Cuellar was called the most “degreed” legislator in Austin and in the U.S. House of Representatives. 

Awards & Recognition

Henry Cuellar’s educational leadership and advocacy has been recognized by many national, state and local educational institutions that include the American & Texas Library Associations, the Texas Association of College & Technical Educators, the Texas Classroom Teacher Association, Region One Education Service Center, the Texas A & M Extension Service of the Texas A&M University Systems, the University of Texas University System, the Association of Texas Professional Educators, the Career College & Schools of Texas, the Independent Colleges & Universities of Texas, the Texas Foreign Language Association, and by many public and private universities, community and technical colleges, and public schools districts. Henry’s greatest honor is having a public elementary school and a charter school for abuse and neglected children named after him.