By Charles Pekow – Should students be able to use 529 education savings accounts to cover the costs of biking to school?
Current law allows these plans to be used for a range of expenses, including tuition, textbooks, supplies, room and board—but not for commuting costs.
To change that, Reps. Jennifer McClellan (D-VA) and Linda Sánchez (D-CA) introduced the Accessible Campus Commuting and Expanded Student Savings (ACCESS) Act (H.R. 3574), which would allow students to use 529 funds for transportation and parking.
The bill does not specifically mention bike upkeep, bike parking, or bikeshare programs. However, when asked about this, McClellan’s press secretary, Caroline Rinker, said colleges and universities could interpret the bill to include such costs. She also noted that the sponsors are open to amending the bill to explicitly mention cycling.
The legislation has been referred to the House Ways and Means Committee.
Read more at: https://mcclellan.house.gov/media/press-releases/mcclellan-sanchez-introduce-bill-improve-affordability-student-transportation
My wife and I were both students at Ole Miss, there was little married student housing on campus. We both had part-time jobs in town and one beat-up old car. The Oxford/Ole Miss community was not the bicycle friendly community that it is now. We were able to rent a place about five miles out of town that we could afford. Our student schedule and work schedule were different so we both needed transportation at contrasting times of the day. Students who lived off campus had to buy a parking permit, so we did, she drove, and I rode my bicycle every day. We were paying for school ourselves with student work study and off campus jobs. Transportation and parking turned out to be a bigger expense than we thought it would. Cycling on campus and in town is much better now, automobile parking is harder and much more expensive!
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