OLYMPIA, Wash. ― Students in Washington State could be among the first to go to college without having to worry about paying tuition up front.
Instead, under a bill proposed in the House, they’d pay after leaving school in the form of a small, fixed percentage of their future income for up to 25 years.
Rep. Larry Seaquist, who introduced the Pay It Forward program in House Bill 2720, says with tuition costs and loan debt skyrocketing over the past decade, those from low- and middle-income families find it increasingly difficult to access higher education. The Democrat from Gig Harbor says the Pay It Forward program would remove that barrier.
“It enables people across a wide spectrum of incomes to simply go to college,” he says.
Similar legislation has been introduced in 17 states with proposals in the works in several others, according to Economic Opportunity Institute President John Burbank.
Oregon legislators passed a bill in 2013 that directed a higher education commission to determine whether a pilot program is warranted and, if so, to submit a proposal to the 2015 Legislature for consideration. Additionally, two similar bills have been introduced at the federal level, Burbank said.
