This is going to be a short one but State Senator and congressional candidate Daylin Leach (D. PA-13) is going to be promoting this heavily:
http://www.phillyburbs.com/...
State Sen. Daylin Leach, D-17, wants to give students an attractive offer to attend college in state: Pay no tuition up front, and don't worry about accumulating any interest.
The Montgomery County lawmaker proposed Wednesday that Pennsylvania become among the first in the nation to advance legislation that would create a new type of public financing to fund college educations.
Under Leach's plan, qualifying students would enter into a contract with the commonwealth so they could pull from a state pool to pay tuition fees. Once employed, the former students would then repay the amount borrowed, interest free, by contributing about 4 percent of their monthly paychecks directly to the state.
"It completely changes the paradigm of paying for higher education," said Leach, D-17, a member of the Senate Education Committee. "We think this is a much better system than the current system, and we think it opens up the discussion about how do we address the student loan problem, the debt crisis and the inability of some students to go to college." - Philly Burbs, 8/7/13
Known as the "Pay it Forward, Pay it Back" bill, Leach's legislation modeled partly after a new pilot program by the same name under consideration in Oregon. Leach's bill is a little different though. Leach's plan would require students to repay only the amount they've borrowed:
The original "pay it forward" concept strips away any language dealing with loans or repayments, and instead pitches itself as a way for students to pay nothing up front in exchange for helping fund the educations of future students. Students agree to pay a percentage of their post-college income for a fixed period of time, such as 3 percent of their paychecks for 24 years, no matter how much they make.
Roughly 70 percent of Pennsylvania's four-year college students graduate in debt, with the average debt burden approaching $30,000 per student, according to 2011 data collected by the Institute for College Access & Success. Some federal loan programs offer income-based repayment plans, but interest starts accruing the day the money gets disbursed. - Philly Burbs, 8/7/13
I'll be looking forward to hearing more about this. In the mean time, if you to donate or get involved with Leach's campaign, you can do so here:
http://votedaylin.com/