Bill increases federal tuition contributions

You may soon have another choice for saving money for their son, daughter or grandchild to go to college. Iowa Congressman Tom Latham is todayintroducing the Education I-R-A-Plus Act. Latham says the measure would raise the amount of money parents or grandparents can make to accounts sotheir young relatives can continue their educations beyond high school. Latham says the current limit is 500-dollars a year. The amount would be raised to two-thousand dollars a year by the year 2002. The State of Iowa is offering a similar program that allows Iowans to save for their kids’ college tuition, but Latham says the state plan is seperate from his proposal. Latham says when a child born today reaches age 18, it will likely cost about 100-thousand dollars to send that kid to a public university. He says a study finds private colleges would likely cost 200-thousand dollars.