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LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A newly elected state senator said he'll introduce legislation to study how a tuition payback program catching on in other states might work in Nebraska.
The program known as Pay It Forward allows students to enroll in college without paying tuition costs up front. Instead, they agree to pay back a fixed percentage of their future income over at least 20 years.
The average student debt in Nebraska last year was more than $26,000, the Lincoln Journal Star (http://bit.ly/1xtzsEV ) reported. Earlier this month, Nebraska state Sen.-elect Adam Morfeld, 29, won election to the Legislature to represent northeast Lincoln. He said he will introduce the legislation to study the program in January.
At least 25 states introduced some kind of Pay It Forward legislation in 2013 and 2014, according to John Burbank, executive director of the Economic Opportunity Institute. Most of the states have decided to study the program, and six have established pilot programs to test the concept on a small scale.
U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley, a Democrat from Oregon, introduced federal legislation last year to expand the program nationwide. An independent firm commissioned to study Oregon's pilot program said it was a model that would be "reasonable and useful" for at least 50 years.
But an American Association of State Colleges and Universities study called Pay It Forward a "sweeping policy concept that would address none of the underlying factors associated with leaving students with deep debt burdens."
"It would create considerable financial uncertainty for public colleges, and may spiral into an administrative nightmare that would leave graduates, campuses and states worse off over the longer term," wrote the study's author, Thomas L. Harnisch, the group's assistant director of state relations and policy analysis.
Burbank counters that the program would help tear down economic barriers for future generations in getting a college degree.
Morfeld said the program is a part of a "serious investment in our youth" that could also address the flight of college graduates from Nebraska by asking participants to remain in the state.
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Information from: Lincoln Journal Star, http://www.journalstar.com
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