‘Pay It Forward’ Gets Interest From Other States

In the months since Oregon passed the bill, Burbank says he’s heard from at least half a dozen states — including California, Maine, Maryland, and New Jersey (which just established a commission to study it) — that are intrigued by Pay-it-Forward. Larry Seaquist, a Democrat, a state representative in Washington state wants to implement a version of the plan faster than Oregon’s. Lawmakers in states that don’t have a recent history of progressive innovation — Pennsylvania, Colorado, Ohio — have expressed interest in Pay-it-Forward and many are working on bills. The speed with which some states are rushing to adopt Pay-it-Forward worries Sandra Schroeder, vice president of the American Federation of Teachers in Washington. But it doesn’t surprise her. “Legislators are going to jump all over it because it gets the problem off their back,” she says. “But it doesn’t get it off their students’ back.”

Last month, we noted that Oregon’s “Pay it Forward, Pay it Back” program was unanimously passed by its Senate and House. The program would essentially give students who attend college in the state free tuition in exchange for 3 percent of their incomes post-graduation for, according to one model, a 20-year period. In The American Prospect, Monica Potts reports that several other states have been inspired by the proposal and are rushing to implement similar programs in their own states, and some educators are worried about the rush to put a good-sounding, yet untested idea into place. For example, early proposals cover just tuition and not room and board, which is often half of the costs of attending college. Others are concerned that the program may affect need-based financial aid and federal Pell grants, which gives money to low-income students to attend college that they don’t have to pay back. Even so, the good thing is that these questions are being raised while legislative committees are being formed to develop the pilot program, and the discussion about how to rein in education costs is happening in the first place. The Associated Press reported (yet again) yesterday that college costs are rising much faster than the rate of inflation.

Photo: Martin O’Malley

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