Sen. Gramm to Unveil Bill to Help Save for College

CONTACT: Lia Unrau

PHONE: (713)
831-4793

E-MAIL: unrau@rice.edu

SEN. GRAMM TO UNVEIL NEW BILL TO HELP SAVE FOR
COLLEGE

U.S. Senator Phil Gramm will be in
Houston on Tuesday, June 1, to unveil a plan for exempting pre-paid tuition
plans from federal income taxes, helping parents who save for their children’s
college expenses.

Joining the senator will be State Comptroller Carole Keeton
Rylander, who administers the Texas Tomorrow Fund, the pre-paid tuition plan for
state universities. The event will take place in Fondren Library, located in the
Academic Quadrangle on the Rice University campus, 6100 Main Street.

“Under current law, many parents have to write tax checks to
the government just as they are making the first tuition payments for their sons
and daughters,” Gramm said. The government should be encouraging Texas families
to send their children to college, not making it tougher by hitting them with a
tax bill just as the kids start school.”

Currently, the Texas Tomorrow Fund and many other pre-paid
tuition programs are subject to federal taxation when the accounts mature. The
Affordable Education Act will allow savings to be set aside, tax-free, for
future college tuition and fees.

Since 1985, the cost of tuition and fees alone in Texas has
increased by 450 percent, while family incomes have only grown by 95 percent.
Currently, the average cost for four years of college at a public university is
$12,000. For children born this year, that cost is projected by some to climb
past $50,000.

WHAT: Unveiling of Affordable Education Act

WHEN: 8:45 a.m., Tuesday, June 1

WHERE: Fondren Library, Rice University campus

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