Establishes the regents high-tech graduate loan foregiveness program to provide annual loan payments of up to $10,000 a year to high-tech college graduates who are residents of the state, attended a college or university in the state, received a degree in a high-tech field and agree to work in a high-tech field in the state for 5 years; appropriates twenty-five million dollars therefor.
NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A4484
SPONSOR: McKevitt (MS) TITLE OF BILL: An act to amend the education law, in relation to
establishing a regents high-tech graduate loan forgiveness program; and
making an appropriation therefor
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL: To encourage New York State resi-
dents to pursue high-technology fields in college and seek employment in
New York after graduation by providing loan forgiveness program for
these individuals.
SUMMARY OF SPECIFIC PROVISIONS:
Section 1: Creates a new subdivision 13 of Section 605 of the Education
Law to create a regents high-tech graduate loan forgiveness program.
Establishes the eligibility criteria, selection process, notification
procedures, service requirements, and reporting process for the loan
forgiveness.
Section 2: Creates a new Section 679-e of the Education Law that speci-
fies there shall be one hundred loan forgiveness awards under this
program awarded each year to initial recipients. Specifies that the
awards shall consist of five consecutive loan forgiveness payments equal
to the cost of the loan expense or ten thousand dollars, whichever is
less. Additionally, outlines the disbursement procedures for the awards.
Section 3: Appropriates $25 million to carry out the provisions of the
high-tech loan forgiveness program.
JUSTIFICATION: In recent years, New York has made strides to attract
and retain high-tech industries in our State by creating initiatives
such as Centers of Excellence, STAR Centers, Advanced Research Centers,
and Centers for Advanced Technology. The creation of such programs show
New York's dedication to bringing high-tech industries to our State.
However, these businesses are reluctant to move to New York because they
are worried that there will not be a qualified workforce available to
make their business successful. Therefore, this legislation seeks to
ensure that New York will have the workforce necessary to have these
high-tech industries thrive in our State.
In past years, New York has created other loan forgiveness programs to
ensure that New York has an adequate number of high-caliber employees in
certain necessary fields where shortages exist, such as medicine. Since
New York is making strides to become a high-tech state it seems logical
to now create a high-tech loan forgiveness program to ensure that we do
not have a shortage of qualified workers.
The proposal first seeks to provide an incentive for today's youth to
enter into and succeed in high-tech programs, such as I engineering and
computer science. The second goal of this program is to ensure that
these intelligent students remain in New York to work and hopefully
assist in combating the "brain drain" that is currently occurring.
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY: A.5762 of 2014- Reference changed to High-
er Education A.7530 of 2012- Reference changed to Higher Education
A.7530 of 2012- Referred to Education A5642 of 2007 Held for consider-
ation in Higher Education
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS: $25 million.
EFFECTIVE DATE: One hundred and eighty days after it shall have
become law.
