HB1781

Dear members of the House Education Funding Committee, I want to strongly urge you to vote ITL on this bill! Post-secondary education or college occurs during young adulthood, and young adults between the ages of 18-22, should be making a financial contribution if they plan to attend college or some other post-secondary education such as a trade school. Post secondary education, while it can provide an advantage to young adults in becoming gainfully employed, is not necessary for that outcome, and low income parents who are just trying to make ends meet and put food on the table for their families, should not be required by law to pay for their children to go to college. Many people from my generation, including me, were required to get summer jobs, once we were 16, and put the bulk of our earnings into our college fund. While our parents may have offered some financial assistance or helped us fill out a student loan application, us having a financial buy-in into our college education made us motivated to take our studies more seriously to succeed in college. In recent decades, prolonging childhood into young adulthood by keeping young adults dependent on their parents longer has not served them well, by delaying their learning of important lessons to make them successful at handling adult responsibilities. On the other hand, not all young adults are truly ready for college at 18, and some do better getting jobs right after high school, where they can learn first-hand what kinds of work are the best fit for their skill set, and that they enjoy. My own two adult children did not finish college, but found work they loved, had many promotions, and now have very successful careers, despite not having a college degree, even though both my husband and I did have college degrees and successful careers. So please vote ITL on HB1781 and don't put the full burden of paying for college on students' parents, at a time when these young adults should be starting to take on some of the responsibilty that goes with adulthood! Thanks for voting ITL on HB1781! Sincerely, Donna L. Peterson