Promoting Access and Retention Through New Efforts to Require Shared Higher Investments in Postsecondary Success Act or the PARTNERSHIPS Act

This bill amends the Higher Education Act of 1965 to establish a state-federal partnership to promote state investment in public higher education. The bill directs the Department of Education to award annual block grants to states that increase public higher education operating support on a per student basis, using a specified formula. As a condition of receiving grants, states must use grant funds to reduce tuition costs and support the enrollment of low-income students in state public educational institutions.

The bill amends the Internal Revenue Code to: (1) expand and make permanent the American Opportunity Tax Credit; (2) increase the amount of the tax exclusion for employer-provided educational assistance programs and make such exclusion available to the spouses and dependents of employees; (3) allow tax exclusions for the discharge of certain public interest student loans, repayments of student loans by tax-exempt organizations, and student loans subject to an income-based or income contingent repayment plan; (4) allow a full exclusion from gross income of Federal Pell Grants; and (5) repeal the requirement that distributions from a qualified tuition plan (529 plan) be aggregated for purposes of determining the amount includible in taxpayer income.