LANSING – House Democrats today passed a plan to help more Michigan students afford to attend college by establishing tax breaks for individuals or groups who buy pre-paid tuition as donations through the Michigan Education Trust (MET) and enabling agencies or charities to set up scholarships through the Michigan Education Savings Program (MESP).
"There are a lot of generous people in Michigan, and this plan will put that generosity to work by helping to provide more young people with the invaluable opportunity to get a college education," said State Representative Rebekah Warren (D-Ann Arbor), a sponsor of the plan. "As we work to control rising tuition costs, we must give working families every opportunity to send their children to college. A college education is vital to ensuring that Michigan's young people have the skills they need to compete for the best-paying jobs and make a good living in today's global economy."
MET allows anyone to pre-purchase undergraduate tuition for a child living in Michigan for any Michigan public university or college. MESP is a tax-deferred college savings program. Currently, both the MET and MESP require a beneficiary to be designated. The plan passed by the House today allows individuals, agencies and nonprofit groups who buy an MET contract to receive a tax deduction without requiring a specific beneficiary to be named in advance and allows anyone who sets up an MESP account to defer designating a beneficiary. It now heads to the Senate.
Although groups and municipalities have expressed a desire to buy multiple MET contracts or set up blocs of MESP contracts – for children from a particular school or town, for example – these restrictions have discouraged such generosity.
"Clearing the way for donors to help more students attend college will not only help individual young people and their families, but will help our state as a whole," said State Representative Steve Lindberg (D-Marquette), who also sponsored the plan. "By increasing the number of Michigan residents who receive a college education, we can create a top-notch workforce and attract the kind of high-tech