By Deborah Williams
Legislators
in Oregon are considering an idea that could be the answer for so many
prospective college students who don’t have the financial resources to
pay for college, and they don’t want to take on its tremendous debt.
Steven Dubois pens an
article on
The Huffington Post website
that describes the new program, which was started by Seattle’s
Economic Opportunity Institute and is based partially on an Australian
model. The idea, Pay It Forward, allows students to attend Oregon’s
public universities without paying tuition or securing a loan. In
exchange, students will have three percent of their paychecks deducted
for about 25 years and deposited into a fund to pay for future students
who choose to participate. Graduates from two-year colleges would have
1.5 percent deducted instead of the three percent. Those who do not
complete their graduation requirements “would pay a pro-rated portion of
their incomes.”
The bill was passed unanimously by the state’s legislature and
probably will be signed by the governor within the next few weeks.
Should it become law, Pay It Forward will begin as a pilot project by
the 2015 Legislature. The startup costs, estimated to be about $9
billion, still need to be resolved because the first participants would
not be able to contribute to the fund for several years.
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