WHEREAS, As Idaho prepares to compete in the global economy of the twenty-first century, our citizens recognize the responsibility of providing their children with the education that will allow them to succeed in life; and

        WHEREAS, Since 1980, the constantly rising costs of higher education have out-paced inflation, the rate of increase in public assistance to students and the growth in family income, posing a serious threat to the ability of our citizens to ensure their children’s access to postsecondary education; and

        WHEREAS, Since 1992, the annual amount of student loan debt has risen from $15 billion to $35 billion, leaving college graduates with the ever-increasing burden of paying for their college education long after they have completed their education; and

        WHEREAS, It is in the state’s interest that access to postsecondary education for our children be maintained and that encouraging parents to save for their children’s education promotes that public purpose; and

        WHEREAS, Government, at both the federal and state levels, needs to encourage savings versus consumption and assisting rather than hindering parents, grandparents, friends, and businesses, as they seek to support the education of children, grandchildren and other in need of help to meet their higher education goals; and

        WHEREAS, The Idaho College Savings Program provides families with an affordable way to save for college;

        NOW, THEREFORE, I, JAMES E. RISCH, Governor of the State of Idaho, do hereby proclaim September 2006, to be

C O L L E G E   S A V I N G S   M O N T H

in Idaho, and in doing so, urge the citizens of our state to recognize the benefits of attaining a higher education and urge them to begin saving for their children’s education.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand and caused to be affixed the Great Seal of the State of Idaho at the Capitol in Boise on this twenty-eighth day of August in the year of our Lord two-thousand and six and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred thirty-first and of the Statehood of Idaho the one hundred seventeenth.

BEN YSURSA
SECRETARY OF STATE