Congressman Propose Colleges use 25% of Endowment Funds to Aid Students

, Spencer Irvine, Leave a comment

image via screenshot from Tom Reed's website

image via screenshot from Tom Reed’s website

It sounds like a good idea, considering that students can barely afford college now:

U.S. Representative Tom Reed says he’s open to modifying a controversial proposal to channel spending from large college and university endowments into student aid, even as he pitches the idea to presidential candidates and takes flak from the higher education community.

Reed, a Republican from New York, is drawing up legislation that would affect universities and colleges with endowments of more than $1 billion. His proposal would require those institutions to take 25 percent of the amount they earn on their endowments annually and pay that money as grants toward students’ cost of attending. For some colleges with very large endowments — and typically already with generous aid programs — this requirement would result in large increases in spending on student aid.