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ECONOMIC REPORT OF THE PRESIDENT

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$294 million in newly appropriated funds for fiscal year 2016 to ensure<br />

that more Head Start children will receive services for a full school day<br />

and full school year. The Administration has also provided new funds<br />

to support the implementation of new requirements in the reauthorized<br />

Child Care and Development Block Grant Act of 2014.<br />

The Administration has also made progress in promoting college<br />

opportunity, affordability, and completion by expanding Pell Grants<br />

and tax credits; making student loans more affordable by cutting interest<br />

rates and allowing borrowers to cap student loan payments at 10<br />

percent of income; making access to financial aid and college information<br />

simpler and faster; and promoting innovation and competition to<br />

bring down costs and improve college quality. Today, more students are<br />

graduating college than ever, and student loan defaults and delinquencies<br />

are trending downward.<br />

Lastly, the Administration has worked to increase training and<br />

skills for workers during their careers. In 2015, the President signed<br />

into law the first-ever annual funding for apprenticeship grants, totaling<br />

$90 million. These investments follow earlier investments through<br />

the American Apprenticeship Grants to promote and expand jobdriven<br />

apprenticeship programs in the United States. In addition, the<br />

Administration has launched a series of initiatives, partnerships, and<br />

grants to facilitate training for the American workforce. In April 2015,<br />

the White House hosted an Upskill Summit at which the President called<br />

on companies to expand education benefits and training opportunities,<br />

and employers have responded to this call—the Aspen Institute’s Upskill<br />

America Initiative reports that participating companies have enhanced<br />

the skills of tens of thousands of frontline workers. The Department of<br />

Labor has also awarded a wide variety of competitive training grants.<br />

These grants have ranged from TechHire grants, which are supporting<br />

public-private partnerships to help train tomorrow’s workforce in rapidgrowth<br />

sectors, to America’s Promise Job-Driven Training grants, which<br />

are creating and expanding innovative regional and sector partnerships<br />

between community colleges and the workforce system to create more<br />

tuition-free education and training programs for in-demand middle and<br />

high-skilled jobs across the country.<br />

180 | Chapter 3

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