Las Vegas Sun: Nevada lawmaker Lee pushes bill to help students as tuition rises
U.S. Rep. Susie Lee, D-Nev., has reintroduced the bipartisan Earn to Learn Act, which would help low-income students cover education-related expenses by matching their savings for college costs, with backers hoping to curb the nation’s growing student loan crisis.
The proposal stalled in committee the previous two times it was introduced. Companion legislation in the U.S. Senate has yet to be introduced.
“Education is the key to opportunity. Like many, I put myself through college with the help of scholarships, loans, and a number of part-time jobs,” Lee said in a statement. “Unfortunately, the cost of higher education has skyrocketed, and it’s beyond cost-prohibitive for far too many American families. We need this bipartisan, commonsense bill to make higher education less expensive and to ensure opportunities to study, train, and learn key skills are truly accessible to everyone.”
The proposal is modeled after Earn to Learn, a Tucson, Ariz.-based nonprofit founded in 2013. The program offers matched-savings scholarships, financial education resources and workforce development opportunities.
Qualifying students deposit $500 into an educational savings account, which is matched at a rate of $8 for every $1 through university support and other public and philanthropic funding. Participants can earn up to $4,500 per academic year for tuition, books and other educational expenses.
The program operates across eight states through 21 partner schools and has distributed more than $31 million in scholarship funding since its inception, according to the organization’s website.
Earn to Learn scholars have a first-year retention rate of almost 90%, and most graduate with less than $10,000 in student loan debt, according to a news release from Lee’s office.
The program created by the Earn to Learn Act would support an estimated 250,000 scholarships over five years.
Lee called the bill “a much-needed step to addressing the student loans crisis in the United States.”
Data from the U.S. Department of Education show nearly 368,000 Nevadans had taken out roughly $13.2 billion in student loan debt as of March, with about 93,000 in default on roughly $2 billion of that debt.
The number of borrowers nationwide with defaulted student loans rose from 5.3 million to about 9.5 million — an increase of more than 4.2 million — between April 2025 and March 2026, according to an Associated Press analysis. Borrowers enter default after missing payments for nine months, which can damage credit ratings and send the debt to collections.
The Nevada System of Higher Education, UNLV, UNR, Nevada State University and the College of Southern Nevada have endorsed the proposal.
“College affordability is a widespread issue, and this innovative program reduces reliance on student loans and introduces students to important principles of financial literacy that will serve them well today and long after they graduate and enter the workforce,” UNLV Interim President Chris Heavey said in a statement.
The proposal comes as the Board of Regents has voted to raise tuition and fees at Nevada institutions. UNLV, UNR and Nevada State University will see a combined 12% increase over three years: 3% in 2026-27, 4% in 2027-28 and 5% in 2028-29.
Undergraduate tuition at UNLV is $4,998 a semester for Nevada residents and $14,314 for out-of-state students.
Tuition at two-year schools such as the College of Southern Nevada will rise 2% this academic year, followed by 3% and 4% increases in 2027-28 and 2028-29, respectively. Fees for upper-division courses at those schools will increase 3% this year, 4% the following year and 5% by 2028-29.
Once fully in place, the increases are projected to cost a full-time Nevada resident student about $1,200 more per year at UNR and UNLV, $900 more at Nevada State University and $400 more for lower-division classes at the College of Southern Nevada, Great Basin College, Truckee Meadows Community College and Western Nevada College.