Today across the United States there is $1.3 trillion in student loan debt between 40 million Americans. Student loan debt has tripled in the last decade and is now larger than the total amount of credit card debt in our country. The average student will graduate more than $30,000 in debt. So, there's no doubt that there is a student loan debt crisis in our country.

Sadly, there are students in our community – as young as elementary school – who now believe that because their families don’t have the means to pay, they will never be able to go to college regardless of how hard they work. These are bright, hardworking students who have given up because they believe they’ll just never be able to afford to go to college. That’s unacceptable and must change

As the son of a schoolteacher, I’ve always believed that a quality education should be within reach for everybody, regardless of zip code or income. That’s why we introduced the HELP for Students and Parents Act, to reduce the burden of student loans and help families pay for college.

Federal policy continues to fail graduates attempting to gain a foothold in the professional world while being crushed by debt. Millions of young workers are delaying saving for the future because the need to pay off student loan debt is more immediate. In fact, nearly 60 percent of young workers are now opting not to take advantage of employer matching for 401(k) retirement plan contributions.

The HELP for Students and Parents Act proposes an innovative plan to reduce the student loan burden on recent graduates, help families pay for college and incentivize employers to take a proactive role in fixing the United States’ student loan debt crisis.

The bill modernizes how the tax code treats employer contributions towards student loan repayment to make repaying student loans more affordable for graduates and supports young workers who want this benefit by encouraging employers to offer student loan repayment programs as part of their employee benefit offerings.

While a number of employer benefits receive significant tax advantages in order to facilitate their adoption and use, the tax code does not incentivize employer contributions towards an employee’s student loan repayments in the same way. This disconnect between current law and the priorities of the modern workforce helps explain why, at a time when young workers are clearly in need of student loan repayment assistance, only three percent of companies offer the benefit to employees.

The HELP for Students and Parents Act will:

Help Graduates with Student Loan Debt

• Excludes from income the amount that an employer contributes towards an employee’s student debt repayment (current law recognizes these contributions as taxable income to the employee)
• Provides a tax credit to employers based on the amount contributed towards an employee’s student debt repayment

Help Parents Who Want to Save for Their Children’s College Education

• Excludes from income the amount that an employer contributes to a college savings account (529 plans) that an employee sets up for their child
• Provides a tax credit to employers based on the amount contributed to a 529 plan that an employee sets up for their child’s college education

Read the legislation: