Assemblywoman Inez Barron (D-40th district) announced the Assembly passed legislation to establish the DREAM Fund, which would award scholarships to college-bound children of immigrants (A.8689-B).
“Often, immigrant families have difficulty affording the skyrocketing costs of college, even when the child does well academically,” Assemblywoman Barron said. “This bill helps ease this burden by providing scholarships to the children of immigrants.”
The Assembly’s legislation would create a DREAM Fund commission that would raise scholarship money, determine criteria for scholarship recipients, create and advertise a training program for educators and develop a public awareness campaign for DREAM fund awards.
“The DREAM Fund would help us make the dream of higher education a more attainable goal for the children of immigrants,” Assemblywoman Barron said. “By working together to create this scholarship fund, we can ensure that more children are armed with the tools they need to compete and achieve real success in America.”
Currently, in order to open a 529 college savings account, one must have either a valid social security or employer identification number. This bill would also allow a person with a taxpayer identification number to open an account, allowing more families, including immigrant families with children, to put money aside to help pay for college tuition.
“So many immigrants came to America with hopes of building a better, more promising future for themselves and their families,” Assemblywoman Barron said. “By establishing a scholarship fund for their children, we can help give everyone an equal chance to achieve the American Dream.”
For more information about this or any other important community issue, please contact Assemblywoman Barron’s office at 257-5824 or email BarronI@assembly.state.ny.us.
