OLYMPIA — 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, said 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 said.