Andrew Musick, Vice President, Taxation & Economic Development
Making higher education more affordable is a key component to reducing New Jersey’s highest-in-the-nation millennial outmigration rate. That’s why the New Jersey Business & Industry Association (NJBIA) supports legislation released by the Assembly Education Committee today to better educate students on paying for college.
“Sixty-one percent of students who graduated in the Class of 2016 and attended a four-year institution in New Jersey acquired on average $29,878 in debt,” said NJBIA Vice President Andrew Musick. “We need to do a better job educating students and their parents about the realities of student loan debt and the other options available to help reduce the cost of a college education.”
NJBIA’s report on millennial outmigration recommends making college and postsecondary education more affordable as a way to keep students in state. If they go out of state to attend school, chances are they will not return to New Jersey to launch their careers.
S-762 (Cunningham, D-31; Sweeney, D-3; Singer, R-30)/A-2773 (Greenwald , D-6; McKnight, D-31; Lampitt, D-6) would require high school graduation requirements to include instruction on tuition assistance programs and student loan debt, and require high school students to meet with their guidance counselor to discuss tuition assistance and dual enrollment.
The bill stems from recommendations of the New Jersey College Affordability Study Commission in 2016.
