YourVoice.Now Summary
Your MoneyLow-income students' college savings would get an $8 match per $1 saved, without cutting Pell Grants.
Your Money
After a student or family puts in the first $100, the program adds $8 for each extra dollar saved. The match stops 8 years after the student first enrolls.
Money a student saves in these accounts, plus the match, is left out when the government decides Pell Grant and other federal student aid amounts.
More about this bill
Low-income students could get $8 for every dollar they save for school, after their first $100. The match would come from new savings programs run by states and nonprofits with federal grants. Money in these accounts would not count against your Pell Grant or other federal student aid. To join, you would need to come from a low-income family, as each program defines it. You would also need to finish a personal finance class and agree to save. The account can be a regular savings account held for you or a 529 college savings plan. The money is meant for college, including for-profit schools, or for career and technical schools. Programs would also offer coaching on money, getting ready for college, and job skills. If you leave school during the add-drop period, you would owe that term's costs. You would also get no match for that term. If you stop meeting the rules, you can take back the money you put in. Your spot ends 8 years after you first enroll, or after 4 years if you never enroll. The Education Department would set up the grants within 9 months of the bill becoming law. Each program must line up private or state money to match its federal grant one to one. Grants could reach $10 million each. Congress could spend up to $100 million a year on it from 2027 through 2031.
Congressional Summary
Earn to Learn Act This bill directs the Department of Education (ED) to establish a postsecondary education match savings account demonstration grant program, through which ED must award competitive grants to states and nonprofit organizations to provide certain low-income students with postsecondary education match savings accounts (e.g., 529 plans). Further, ED must (1) develop and make available to grant recipients certain tools, including a training platform, a program guide, an online data portal, and certain trainings (e.g., on workforce readiness); (2) ensure that participation in the grant program does not affect student eligibility for Federal Pell Grants; and (3) provide technical assistance. Grant recipients must use funds to (1) select eligible students to participate in the grant program, (2) provide selected students with financial literacy education, (3) establish a postsecondary education match savings account for each participating student and allow such students and their families to deposit funds in their account to save for attendance at an institution of higher education or an area career and technical education school, and (4) reserve matching funds for participating students. Additionally, grant recipients must ensure that participating students are entitled to withdraw funds from their accounts under certain circumstances.
Details
- Congress
- 119th
- Chamber
- House
- Status
- summarized
- Action
- Introduced in House
- Action Date
- 2026-08-13
- Date Added
- 2026-10-02
- Source
- Congress.gov →
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