(Published November 3‚ 2003)

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) - Eighteen months ago, U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., told an audience at Allen University that he would propose a bill to help students get to college and graduate.

On Monday, Lieberman planned to return to a neighboring historically black college to announce the plan he would champion if he is elected president in November 2004.

The goals of Lieberman's plan are essentially the same: giving families better access to college, making students more ready for college and ensuring that students graduate within six years.

"My plan will open the doors of college to more Americans - and close the graduation gap that keeps too many students from a fair chance at a better life," Lieberman said in an advance copy of the speech he was to give at Benedict College on Monday.

According to information from the Democratic presidential hopeful's campaign, the plan would increase the maximum value of annual Pell grants to $6,150 next year from $4,050 this year. The value would increase to $7,760 by 2008.

To help students get ready for college, Lieberman will propose fully funding federal elementary and secondary programs in the No Child Left Behind Act and setting aside money to pay for programs that help first-generation college students make the transition to higher education.

In his speech to Allen University in April 2002, Lieberman said President Bush's budget was $6 billion short of what was required in the act.

The third part of Lieberman's proposal is to make colleges accountable for graduating students by requiring them to report 6-year graduation rates by income and race. Federal funds also would be used to reward colleges that show a significant increase in minority graduation rates.

"It's fair to say this is the next threshold of the civil rights movement," Lieberman said in his prepared remarks. "This is a pass or fail test for America - and for the promise of equal opportunity for which we stand."

Under Lieberman's plan, the goal is to get at least 90 percent of all high school graduates in 2020 into either the military, vocational school or college. Of those students going to college, the goal is to get a 90 percent graduation rate within six years.

"When I am president, we're not going to be satisfied with incremental progress," Lieberman said. "We're going to fight to make those disparities disappear and make the American dream real for all Americans."