New bill would make it easier to study abroad

College students who can’t afford the cost of studying abroad might soon receive financial… College students who can’t afford the cost of studying abroad might soon receive financial assistance from Washington if lawmakers pass the Sen. Paul Simon Study Abroad Foundation Act.

The act, which is part of the Foreign Relations Authorization Act for fiscal years 2010 and 2011, was introduced to Congress last Thursday by Rep. Howard Berman, D-Calif., chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

If made into law, the bill will create a program dedicated to sending 1 million undergraduate students per year to study abroad through grants to students and improvements to existing study abroad assistance programs.

Despite surveys that say more than 50 percent of undergraduate students want to study abroad, only 2.15 percent of Pennsylvania undergraduates studied abroad in the 2006-07 academic year, slightly higher than the national average of 1.36 percent.

Pitt’s Study Abroad Office sends approximately 1,300 students to study abroad every year, even though Carol Larson, the office’s director of management, said she would like to send more.

“In theory, study abroad is a wonderful thing and most people want to do it,” Larson said. “But when you get down to the nitty-gritty details, it can be a very expensive semester or year for a student to pay for.”

Larson said she’s excitedly waiting to hear the details of the Simon Act because anything that makes the cost of study abroad less prohibitive would be a blessing to students.

But she also said she knows Congress has tried to pass legislation like this for years, and she doesn’t hold any grand delusions.

“I think of this in really theoretical terms,” she said. “We don’t know where it’s going yet, or what final form it will take, or how much the funding is really going to be.”

The Simon Act is now moving through the House Foreign Affairs Committee and has yet to move through the House Committee on Appropriations.

This means Congress has only given targeted numbers for how much it might spend for the Simon Act, so it’s impossible to tell how much money, if any, will go toward the act.

The current projection is that it will cost approximately $40 million in the fiscal year 2010, then $80 million in 2011 and every following year.

A spokesperson at Berman’s office, Lynne Weil, said she thinks the Foreign Relations Act has a good chance of passing through committee and the House of the Representatives, but might stall in the Senate.

Even if Congress votes down the Foreign Relations Act, she said, lawmakers can vote on the Simon Act alone, which might help its chances of becoming law.

Last June, the House passed the Simon Act, but the Senate didn’t get to vote on it before Congress went to recess.

If passed, the Simon Act will function much like current grant-giving programs, such as the Fulbright Scholars Program.

It will establish the Senator Paul Simon Study Abroad Foundation, which will be responsible for allocating funds to undergraduate students who apply for assistance through their school’s study abroad offices.

Students will receive financial assistance based on demonstrated need and scholastic merit. The assistance will focus on helping economically disadvantaged students, with a special emphasis on minority involvement.

One of the missions of the Simon Act is to send students to nontraditional countries, like the People’s Republic of China and countries in the Middle East.

More than half of students who study abroad do so in Europe, but the Simon Act seeks to encourage knowledge and understanding of a broader variety of cultures.