ANIMAS HIGH SCHOOL MODEL SENATE

Committee: Health, Education, and Labor

Pensions Committee

Principal Authors: Elizabeth Warren (Derek

Junttonen) Jack Reed (Garrett Hagen)

Bill No:

Submission Date: November 11, 2016

Title of Bill: Tuition Reduction Act of 2016

BE IT ENACTED BY THE ANIMAS HIGH SCHOOL MODEL CONGRESS
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Preamble: Whereas the level of ones education is the highest indicator of lifetime earnings,
and since the average price of a year of college has nearly tripled in the past decade and has
increased 3 times as much as inflation, and since the cost of a college degree has increased
1,000% in the last 30 years, and since someone going to college today pays 300% more than
the previous generation when adjusted for inflation, and since bankruptcy does not
discharge college debt, and since the average yearly price of tuition will equal the average
yearly family income in 21 years,
SECTION 1: Lower tuition prices of higher education by 10% over the next 10 years, or a
1% reduction per year by-Sub-SECTION A: Keeping the annual increase of cost of college (currently
4%) below the CPI (currently 1.7%) annual increase.
SECTION 2: After 10 years and the 10% decrease, a cap will be implemented to regulate
tuition price increases by-Sub-SECTION A: The allowable increase of college tuition will remain
between 0% and 0.5% less than the current CPI.
SECTION 3: If necessary, subsidize colleges and universities losing money because of
reducing their tuition prices by-Sub-SECTION A: Providing colleges with more federal funding from slight
income and sales tax increases (1% increase each) at the federal level.
(A)
Tax increase
money will be distributed to individual states based on
the number of institutions and the net profit loss of those
institutions.
SECTION 4: Should an institution lose more than 10% of their expense margin from the
previous fiscal year, they will be financially compensated to within 5% expense coverage
loss of the previous fiscal year by-Sub-SECTION A: Institutions with profit loss of 5% or less will be responsible
for any financial compensation that may be required for facilities, salaries,
room and board, etc.
Sub-SECTION B: Teachers and professors will not see a deduction in salary as
a result of profit loss at any institution.

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37 SECTION 5: Allow more people to gain access to higher education as a form of career
38 pursuit by-39
Sub-SECTION A: Continuing to allow students who need it to receive need40
based financial aid grants.
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Sub-SECTION B: Evaluating students on a more individualized platform to
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establish an appropriated estimate for students financial aid needs, including-43
(A) Single parent financial status, income
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of any past or future partner notwithstanding.
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(B) If the annual income of a student and
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said students family is below $40,000, regardless of the
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number of parents present, that student will receive a
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financial aid package of equal value to annual tuition of
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the school to which they are applying.
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51 SECTION 6: This bill shall go into effect 120 days after passage.
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**In order to fully understand the proposed bill and the tuition reductions proposed in it,
refer to the following appendices.
Appendix I:
Section 1: Sub-SECTION A: Keeping the annual increase of cost of college (currently 4%)
below the CPI (currently 1.7%) annual increase. The following section pertains to the
definition of CPI and the plan of action to hold college tuition increases below the CPI. CPI
is the Consumer Price Index and can be defined as a measure that examines the weighted
average of prices of a basket of consumer goods and services, such as transportation, food,
and medical care. In simpler terms, CPI is the rate of inflation. This Sub-SECTION is
proposing the allowable increase in college tuition prices be kept .5% below or equal to the
current CPI at any given time. This allows the increase in college tuition to remain below or
equal to the increase in inflation, which automatically causes tuition to be more affordable
for a higher number of students planning to pursue higher education.
Appendix II:
Section 3: Sub-SECTION A (A): Tax increase money will be distributed to individual states
based on the number of institutions and the net profit loss of those institutions. The
following section pertains to how money will be distributed to states and how the amount of
money those states receive will be evaluated. Due to the tuition reductions proposed in this
bill, many institutions will lose money that would otherwise come from tuition money from
students. Each state will be evaluated individually with regards to the total expense loss for
all institutions losing more than 5% of their expenses of the previous year. Tax increase
money at the federal level will then be distributed down to the state level in relation to the
net expense loss of each state; states with higher net expense loss at their institutions will
receive higher subsidization (more information on this plan is outlined in Section 4 of the
bill). This tax increase, as well as the distribution of the money, will allow more students to
achieve the level of higher education they are seeking and will result in a more educated

workforce and less individual/federal tuition debt.

Appendix III:
Section 4: Should an institution lose more than 10% of their expense margin from the
previous fiscal year, they will be financially compensated to within 5% expense coverage
loss of the previous fiscal year. The following section pertains to government tax-funded
subsidization of institutions. Due to any given institutions need to continue to receive
money for facilities, salaries, equipment, etc., much of which comes from tuition money
paid by students, institutions will be financially compensated based on their expense loss of
the previous year. For example, should an institution lose 10% or more of their expenses
due to the required deduction in tuition prices, they will be subsidized to make up their
expense loss until that loss is equal to or less than 5% of their previous years received
expenses. This will allow for a less abrupt shift in expense management for institutions and
will help those institutions become more gradually accustomed to the declining amount of
money coming into their budgets.