1. Short title This Act may be cited as the Earn to Learn Act . 2. Findings Congress finds the following: (1) Skyrocketing costs of higher education are outpacing available financial aid. Individuals in the United States owe more than $1,700,000,000,000 in student loan debt, and more than 3,000 student loan borrowers default on a student loan every day, many of whom did not complete their educational program before obtaining a degree. (2) The cost of paying for public higher education and workforce training programs continues to rise while the purchasing power of Federal Pell Grant aid has significantly diminished. (3) The confluence of these issues forces prospective students to make the tough choice between foregoing postsecondary education and borrowing enough money to pay for it, an amount that is often many times their annual salary and can remain a financial burden for decades after these students graduate. (4) The higher rates of loan delinquencies and default among low- and moderate-income populations often lead to increased financial hardship, fewer assets, and lower net worth. (5) In 2013, the Brookings Institute found that the increasing debt burden represents a drag on recent graduates and also serves as a deterrent to would-be students who may question the trade-off between the debt burden and the payoff of a college degree. (6) During the 2015–2016 academic year, the Department of Education found that nearly 3 in 4 students experienced unmet need, and that unmet need among postsecondary students had risen by 23 percent since the 2011–2012 academic year. (7) The Federal Reserve System has determined student loan payments are displacing retirement savings, home ownership, small business development, and other forms of building wealth. (8) The Report on the Economic Well-Being of United States Households in 2018 by the Federal Reserve found that 2 in 3 graduates with a bachelor’s degree or higher feel that their educational investment paid off financially, but only 3 in 10 students who started higher