Dear Commons Community,
Following on the heels of Oregon, New Jersey legislators are considering a study of a “Pay It Forward” program for its public colleges and universities. This type of program would allow students to attend a pubic college tuition-free with the proviso that they repay their tuition as a percentage of their annual salaries for some period (10 to 24 years) of time after graduation. The Star-Ledger reported:
“[New Jersey] Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D-Gloucester) said today he and Assemblywoman Celeste Riley (D-Cumberland), head of the Higher Education Committee, will introduce legislation to establish a seven-member commission to study the idea, called “Pay Forward, Pay Back.”
He said it would be up to the commission to decide whether to set up a pilot program.
Under the plan, New Jersey public colleges could waive tuition and fees for students who pledge to give the state a portion of their salaries after graduation.
In theory, the idea would reduce the amount of loans students take out to go to college.
“When kids are getting out of college, they’re buried in debt,” Sweeney said. “It gives another pathway to higher education. As someone who didn’t go to college and recognizes how fortunate I am that things worked out for me, you don’t want to leave things up to luck.”
The article also points out that there are financial issues that have to be worked out in such programs:
“While students would get free tuition and fees while they are in school, they will still have to take out loans to cover the cost of living on or off campus, buying books, paying for transportation and other costs that often account for more than half of the expense of attending college.
It is also unclear if asking students in Oregon to repay 3 percent of their income for a quarter century would cover the cost of running a college or if the schools would have enough cash to operate in the first few years of the program. Critics also questioned whether the state would be able to keep track of the incomes of students who move out of state or out of the country.
“It needs a lot more details,” said Mark Kantrowitz, a financial aid expert. “There are a lot of aspects of this that they just haven’t considered.”
Kantrowitz said his preliminary calculations showed Oregon would probably have to require graduates to pay 6 percent of their incomes over 25 years or 10 percent over 10 years to come close to raising the money they would need to keep the program going.”
As with many such sweeping proposals, the devil is in the details but it is heartening to see legislators thinking outside the box in trying to solve student tuition and funding problems for public higher education.
Tony
