The general assembly finds and declares:

(1)  A well-educated citizenry is critical to this state’s ability to compete in the national and global economies.

(2)  Higher education both benefits individual students and is a public good benefitting the state as a whole.

(3)  Excessive student loan debt is impeding economic growth in this state. Faced with excessive repayment burdens, many individuals are unable to start businesses, invest or buy homes, and may be forced to leave the state in search of higher paying jobs elsewhere.

(4)  Relieving student loan debt would give these individuals greater control over their earnings, would increase entrepreneurship and demand for goods and services, and would enable employers in this state to recruit and retain graduates in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

(5)  The Stay Invested in RI Wavemaker Fellowship is designed to achieve the following goals:

(i)  Promote economic opportunity for people in this state by ensuring access to the training and higher education that higher-paying jobs require;

(ii)  Bring more and higher-paying jobs to this state by increasing the skill level of this state’s workforce;

(iii)  Offer educational opportunity and retraining to individuals impacted by job loss, workplace injury, disability or other hardship;

(iv)  Keep young people in the state through incentives for educational opportunity and creation of more high-paying jobs;

(v)  Encourage an entrepreneurial economy in Rhode Island; and

(vi)  Accomplish all of the goals in this chapter with as little bureaucracy as possible.