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Last year, the Alabama Legislature passed a bill creating the Distressed Institutions of Higher Learning Revolving Loan Program specifically to bail out Birmingham Southern College.
Now that the program has failed to save BSC, lawmakers took a first step forward Wednesday toward repealing the program entirely.
The $30 million loan program relied on State Treasurer Young Boozer to OK the loan, and Boozer denied to give BSC the money, calling the college a bad credit risk.
Sen. Jabo Waggoner, R-Vestavia Hills, brought legislation to remove Boozer from the process entirely in a last-ditch effort to save the school, but the bill failed in House committee, and BSC announced it would close its doors at the end of the spring semester.
HB415 by Rep. Juandalynn Givan, D-Birmingham, would end the program without it ever being used.
“It will provide that any funds in the Distressed Institutions of Higher Education Loan Program Fund be transferred back to the Education Trust Fund (ETF) within 30 days,” Givan said.
The House Ways and Means Education Committee approved the bill Wednesday on a voice vote to head to the floor.
