Members of the Higher Education and Employment Advancement Committee passed 10 bills in the group’s final meeting of the session last Thursday.
In total, over two dozen pieces of legislation came out of the committee this year and now advance to next steps — including a stop through the Appropriations Committee for bills that require state funding. All measures will face votes in both chambers before those that get approved by the full legislature can be signed into law.
Most of the committee’s proposals focused on expanded access to post secondary education and affordability. Here’s a few bills to keep an eye on.
Expanding accessibility
Senate Bill 5, an act concerning higher education affordability and accountability, was one of the committee’s top bills this session — with a focus on enforcing the Roberta B. Willis Scholarship Program, a need-based and merit-based scholarship that provides Connecticut students between $4,500 and $5,200 to attend in-state higher education institutions.
In February, lawmakers said about two-thirds of the students, or around 16,000, who qualified for the scholarship did not receive funds in FY22. The proposed bill would require that need-based grants equal to $4,500 per student are fully funded and for the Office of Higher Education to provide the scholarship funds before the student starts the semester.
It passed unanimously.
“Connecticut drastically underfunds our needs-based scholarship program, and with this proposal we can tell every Connecticut student that we are willing to invest in them and Connecticut is a place where they can start a career and pave the way toward more opportunity,” said committee co-chair Sen. Derek Slap, D-West Hartford.
Two other bills, Senate Bill 1413 and House Bill 6885, would expand college accessibility within the Connecticut State Colleges and Universities system.
H.B. 6885 builds on the state’s Mary Ann Handley Award, which was previously known as the PACT Program. It allows students to attend community colleges in Connecticut “debt-free” by covering the “unpaid portion of tuition and required fees” or providing a $500 grant for full time students for the first 72 credits earned.
Initially, the bill proposed that the scholarship would extend to students attending the state’s four regional universities, but final language in the bill ultimately said the scholarship would only extend to the regional universities if the student was transferring from a local community college.
“The original proposal was bold, ambitious and very expensive. This one is bold, ambitious and less expensive. It’s also strategic,” Slap said.
Co-chair Rep. Gregg Haddad, D-Mansfield, added that the debt-free community college program started in the same way with limited eligibility before expanding over time. He said he’s hopeful this proposal is another “good step toward the path” of expanding the number of college educated workers in the state.
“I think it’s a strong statement that we value completion, not just associate degrees, but also bachelor’s degrees and that we acknowledge that there’s a population of students in Connecticut that for which we owe an affordable path toward earning a degree,” Haddad said.
S.B. 1413 would also expand access within the Connecticut State Universities by providing inclusive programs for students with disabilities.
If signed into law, the Board of Regents would be required to tag team with the departments of developmental services, social services and education to provide more inclusive educational programs, which would include individualized support for academic, social and housing needs.
“We have a duty to provide the best educational opportunities possible for every student, and currently students in the [intellectual or developmental disabilities] community are being left behind in higher education,” Slap said. “The college experience is so important for young people, not only for the academics, but also for socialization, career development, creating life experiences and learning independence.”
Affordability
Several bills from the Higher Education and Employment Advancement Committee this session were centered on student loans.
House Bill 6074, an act concerning the student loan reimbursement program, clarified the different types of volunteer opportunities an individual would need to be eligible to qualify under the program for $5,000 annually (up to $20,000 over four years) in student loan payments. These include serving on a board of directors for a nonprofit, for a religious organization, military service, as a firefighter or emergency medical services personnel for at least 50 hours.
The loan reimbursement program is issued on a first-come, first-served basis.
House Bill 6886 builds on extending the student loan reimbursement program to nurses who volunteer at least 50 hours “in a designated health care professional shortage area, medically underserved area or an area with medically underserved populations,” according to language in the legislation.
Former Stone Academy nursing students may see tuition refunds under House Bill 7098, which builds and expands previous legislation that passed last year that only refunded students for credits recognized after a state audit.
The proposed legislation this year says former students should also be refunded for credits and fees that “had no value — whether the credits were supported by documentation or not,” Attorney General William Tong said. The bill doesn’t specify how much money a student would be eligible for, but did say the Office of Higher Education can pull up to $150,000 of funds from the private career school student protection account.
“It’s been well publicized what former Stone Academy students went through, and they’re an important part of our state’s workforce. They’re aspiring to be nurses, something the state is badly needing. Not only were they, in my opinion, treated pretty poorly and left in the lurch here in their education, incurred a lot of debt in many cases, but many of these folks are single mothers,” Slap said. “They’re people who were really struggling but aspiring to get their education. … This bill makes a lot of sense to help right a wrong and get these young folks on their way to a successful career.”.
Senate Bill 1261 also proposed expanding a loan subsidy program for Alliance District educators and counselors to other “high priority” positions including “occupations that promote the health, welfare or education of residents” in the state’s worst performing districts.
“The funding is already pre-existing and service underutilized,” Haddad said. “We’ll give a little more discretion to expand the pool of people who can apply to the program.”
Another proposal that passed out of committee and received broad support was Senate Bill 1112.
S.B. 1112 would prohibit scholarship displacement, a practice by higher education institutions to reduce university financial aid if a student receives scholarships from another outside source. For example, if a student was awarded a $10,000 scholarship from a university, but received a $500 scholarship from a nonprofit organization, the university could withdraw $500 from its initial offer.