Pols make push for trade apprenticeship funding
UPPER CHICHESTER » A bipartisan effort to expand the use of funds in IRS-approved college saving plans to pay for trade apprenticeships was launched on Tuesday.
U.S. Reps. Patrick Meehan, R-7 of Chadds Ford, and Donald Norcross, D-1 of New Jersey, make a push for their legislation, H.B. 3395, at the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 654 in Upper Chichester. The bill would expand the use of a 529 plan to include apprenticeship programs in addition to regular four-year colleges.
Known as the 529 Opening Paths To Invest in Our Nation’s Students (OPTIONS) Act, it would add a subparagraph to the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to include apprenticeship books, supplies or equipment as qualified higher education expenses. Child care and costs associated with obtaining an industry certification/credential are other expenses the proposed legislation includes.
Supported by local trade union representatives, the bill was praised for being a first step to have a more skilled workforce by allowing a person’s 529 contributions used to acquire the acceptable tools needed to complete a multi-year apprenticeship.
“We believe it should be just as valuable to be able to put money aside to prepare to enter the workforce, the skilled workforce, by virtue of apprenticeship with skilled labor,” said Meehan. “The 519 program allows individuals to put money away for the kind of expenses that would not be covered by the apprenticeship programs at unions like (IBEW Local 654) or other places where these kinds of training can take place.”
Norcross, an electrician by trade and a former apprentice at the Camden Community College, approved of the bill’s expanded use of using one’s own money for what they need in regards to obtaining a good job and a career.
“What we’re doing under this bill is opening up where this money can be spent,” said Norcross. “Having gone through an apprenticeship myself I know the costs that are an addition of what’s going on… The fact of the matter is people look at a measure of success by what college you went to.”
“The idea (is) making sure those 529’s are not just for college, but for career training.”
According to IBEW Local 654 Business Manager Paul Mullen, it costs thousands of dollars in books for their five-year electrician apprenticeship program, $719 for year five alone, not to mention the tools, uniforms and technologies needed for such a program.
“A kid 18 years old coming out of high school to come up with that type of money before he even starts school will be a very tough thing,” Mullen said, adding that the bill will definitely help Local 654’s apprentices.
The legislation was referred to the House Ways and Means Committee, where Meehan is a member, and also its tax policy subcommittee.
According to an April 2017 report by the Investment Company Institute, there were approximately 13 million 529 plan accounts at the end of 2016, 11.7 million of them being savings plans and the rest as prepaid tuition plans, the assets of which were worth a combine $275 billion.