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Congresswoman Stacey Plaskett today introduced a bill in Congress that will help to make college more affordable for Virgin Islands residents attending public institutions of higher learning that are located outside of the territory.

The United States Virgin Islands College Access Act of 2015 will allow college students who are residents of the Virgin Islands to pay In-State Tuition rates at participating four-year institutions of higher education located in one of several States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and Guam.

Plaskett said the bill is a necessary step to enable college-boundresidents of the Virgin Islands to havegreater choicesamonginstitutionsofhighereducation and to mitigate the strain of student debt for young Virgin Islanders. “It’s important to help our students not only expand their options in applying to colleges but to also make those options more affordable. One of the additional goals of this bill is to help Virgin Islands students when they decide what to do after graduating and potentially help them to come back home rather than remain on the mainland,” said Plaskett.

To qualify for In-State tuition under the United States Virgin Islands College Access Act of 2015, qualified students must:

·Be a resident of the U.S. Virgin Islands for twelve (12) consecutive months preceding the commencement of their freshman year at a participating institution of higher education.

·Have graduated from a secondary school in the U.S. Virgin Islands, or receive the recognized equivalent of a secondary school diploma from the U.S. Virgin Islands on, or after, January 1, 2013.

·Maintain satisfactory progress in the course of study that the student is pursuing.

·Maintain their residency in the U.S. Virgin Islands while enrolled in an eligible institution.

“While college-bound students from the territory can attend any institution of higher education, high out-of-state tuition costs often place an undue and unfair burden on many of them and thereby creates economic hardship for their families. With student debt in this country totaling $1 Trillion - surpassing that of auto and mortgage loans - It is vitally important that we not only remove financial barriers that may be limiting the choices of our students, but also ensure that they are not bound by the financial constraints of high student loan debt, and this Bill is a step in the right direction to achieving those goals” added Plaskett.

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