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Leon J. Roomberg, M.S. The Roomberg Institute |
304
Garwood Place 609.238.4625 |
Tuesday, July 27, 2004
Dear parent,
This note has three purposes. First, to provide the details of a proposed
revenue–neutral government program to fund almost 100% of college costs for the
nation’s citizens. Second, to ask for a
written letter of support to help us recruit others for the cause. Third, to ask for your active support for our
cause.
Background: Many of the existing 15 million college
families struggling to pay for their children’s college costs. These struggles often reach the point where
college costs detract from the ability to pay for medical, retirement, and housing
expenses. The federal government already
contributes 65 billion dollars per year in various forms of tuition aid, or
about 22% of total national tuition. With funding requirements required to
support the military and national deficits, any comprehensive solution must be
revenue neutral (i.e. no new taxes and no increase in the deficit.).
In addition to those
attending college, more than 2 million high school graduates each year decide
not to attend college because they are convinced they don’t have the money to
pay for it.
Reasons for college: There are four main reasons why it is in the
government’s best interest to enable as many people to graduate from
college. First, the average lifetime
income for college graduates now exceeds the lifetime income for high school
graduates by more than $900,000.00.
Second, lifetime tax payments by college graduates exceed high school
graduates by more than $300,000.00.
Third, college graduates require less of government services such as
police, emergency medical care, courts, social workers, and prisons. Lastly, the global competitiveness and
productivity of our nation’s businesses is directly tied to the available pool
of college graduates.
The solution: We
have developed a revenue-neutral financing program called the Roomberg Taxpayer
Scholarship© that will finance 100% of college costs for almost all college
students in the country. While the
details are contained in a white paper (available online at www.RoombergInstitute.com), this
note contains some of the highlights.
Major RTS© Details: The program provides up to $20,000 of college loans to almost every
student in the country every year. (Maximum
$80,000 for a Bachelor’s Degree, an additional $40,000 for a Master’s Degree,
and an additional $40,000 for a Doctorate). The program’s loan repayment plan
is limited to 10% of the student’s gross income and 2% of their parent’s income. The repayment mechanism is the weekly
withholding and annual tax payments made to Internal Revenue. The funds are to be segregated from other
federal collections and used to repay College Loan Backed Securities funded by
private investors. As college loans are
immune to most forms of bankruptcy, the default rates are projected to be low
and so are the projected interest rates.
By collateralizing college educations as we do for mortgages, we enable
private investors to fund the great majority of college education costs. Existing federal funds used for these
purposes could subsidize payments for the very poorest of families.
The result would be the financing of almost the entire
cost of college for almost all students at no increased net cost to the government.
Who we are: The Roomberg Institute, a project of the
American Association of Accredited Degreed Counselors, Incorporated (AAADC), a
not-for-profit, non-political, 503c organization, incorporated in the state of
Three favors we are asking of you:
- First, if you want more detail, read our white
paper at www.roomberginstitute.org
and contact us if you have further questions.
- Second, once you decide to support our cause,
please send us a letter of endorsement that contains one of the following
two statements:
- I (we) endorse the implementation of the
Roomberg Taxpayer Scholarship© program and may be contacted by any news
organization for confirmation of this endorsement
OR
- I (we) endorse immediate congressional
investigation and evaluation of the Roomberg Taxpayer Scholarship©
program and may be contacted by any news organization for confirmation of
this endorsement
- Third, any
financial support you offer to support this mission to educate our
political, educational, and other national leaders can be sent to:
AAADC
Sincerely,
Leon Jay Roomberg, M.S.
Director, AAADC
telephone 609.238.4625
Email: RTS@Roomberg.com
www.RoombergInstitute.org