What Happened to the UNH Enrichment Legislation? - Granite Grok

What Happened to the UNH Enrichment Legislation?

UNH CampusSenator Dan Innis (R-UNH) sponsored SB41 to recruit STEM candidates to New Hampshire Schools. As originally written it would have given $5,000.00 in taxpayer debt forgiveness to STEM students for showing up but not graduating or sticking around to thank taxpayers; by putting that knowledge to use in the Granite State. This prompted me to call it UNH Enrichment Legislation.

I’m happy to report that SB41 was revised and then tabled.

The amended version goes something like this.

[su_quote]The fund shall be administered by the New Hampshire Higher Education Assistance Foundation for the purpose of providing a matching grant for education debt relief of up to $2,500 for each skilled technology worker who is employed in the technology sector in the state for at least 3 years and who receives an employer-provided grant for the purpose of education debt relief. Any person who does not work for at least 3 years in the technology sector shall reimburse all employer-provided and state matching grants received under this section. [/su_quote]

The taxpayer portion is only $2,500.00, only applies if an employer matches the amount, and the student/employee works in the state for a minimum of three years. Failing that all money must be returned.

How that happens is unclear as are other considerations that resulted in the State Senate setting it aside for another day.

You can read the Feb 22 amendment here. A March 8th amendment here. And the tabled amended version here.

This is not an endorsement of any version of this idea. A better idea would be to ask UNH to do all the heavy lifting as a condition of retaining any existing taxpayer funds, which readers will know I would prefer to see cut completely.

UNH Administrators have the skills.

The State University system has been very successful at collecting voluntary donations a skill they might spend more time exercising if the legislature spent less time looking for ways to keep tuition high and taxpayer handouts higher. And if by chance you need to cut something to round up the cash start with the pointless and unproductive diversity scam.

 

Related | What Really Exacerbates Student Debt?

Related | UNH President Makes About Half a Million – Look at What We Get!

 

 

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