Congressman Salud Carbajal proudly represents the 24th Congressional District of California. The District includes the entirety of San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara Counties, and a portion of Ventura County.
Prior to representing the Central Coast in Congress, Salud served as Santa Barbara County’s First District Supervisor for twelve years. As County Supervisor, Salud championed the development of the Blue Ribbon Budget Task Force to examine our county operations and budget process. He has also advocated for health and social service safety net programs for our most vulnerable residents, co-sponsoring an initiative to provide health insurance for all the County's children and spearheading the creation of a job skills and mentorship program for at-risk youth throughout the County.
As the cost of tuition and childhood education programs continues to skyrocket, we need to make sure all Central Coast residents have a chance to pursue an education for themselves or their children without being crushed by debt.
The Central Coast is home to some of our nation’s finest higher education institutions and I am committed to helping our students succeed here without the crushing burden of student loan debt. As someone who relied on Pell Grants to help pay for my college degree, I understand firsthand the difficulty students face when contemplating how to afford a higher education.
That is why I have introduced the Creating Higher Education Affordability Necessary to Compete Economically (CHANCE.) Act. I authored this bill to make college more affordable and accessible to people of all backgrounds. By adjusting the Pell Grant for inflation, reinstating the year-round Pell Grant, and increasing the number of eligible semesters, the CHANCE Act gives students access to an education that might otherwise be out of reach and enables them to join the workforce sooner without the burden of student-loan debt.
Through my work on the House Armed Services Committee, I have fought increased funding for research at our Central Coast colleges and universities. I passed legislation allocating $5 million in funding for the Defense Department Educational Partnership Agreement at Cal Poly. This funding supplements two programs on Cal Poly’s campus – the High-Performance Computing Lab and the Electrical and Micro Propulsion Lab. This amendment encourages DoD-academia research partnerships on the Central Coast that will ultimately help sustain the United States’ technological edge.
In Congress, I have worked to secure funding for childhood education programs, urging the House Appropriation Committee to prioritize funding for Head Start to ensure this important program has the necessary resources to be successful in our communities. Every child deserves an even start in their education and I will continue to strongly support these programs.
I believe that access to education promotes growth in our communities and economy for future generations. This is why I will continue to work tirelessly to find solutions to ensure success for all Americans in our education system.