The GOP Tax Plan Will Destroy Graduate Education

[maxrandb]

Source: Forbes

For millions of young people, the American dream is to study the thing you're most passionate about at the highest levels possible, and then use those skills and that knowledge to build a life you'll be fulfilled with. For some of us, the American dream includes many years of graduate school and extremely frugal living along the journey to a Ph.D. Traditionally, in a great many fields (such as biology, physics, chemistry, and mathematics), the only way this has been possible is through teaching and/or research assistantships, which grant graduate students with a small stipend (in the ~$20K-$30K/year range) to live off of.

These assistantships also come with a tuition waiver, valued at ~$12K-$50K/year, depending on the public-or-private, in-state-or-out-of-state institution. Currently, these tuition waivers are paid by the college directly to itself, on behalf of the graduate student, and are not counted as taxable income. Under the new GOP tax plan, however, those tuition waivers would be taxed as regular income, making graduate school an unaffordable proposition except for those already independently wealthy.

Now, imagine if the rules were changed. Imagine that you still earned the same stipend, but were forced to treat your tuition-and-fees as taxable income as well. For our three cases, the amount of taxes you owe to the government on an annual basis would change dramatically:
•University of Florida (in-state): $1,424/year currently; $4,052/year under the new plan.
•University of Florida (out-of-state): $1,424/year currently; $7,617/year under the new plan.
•Princeton University: $2,849/year currently; $13,499/year under the new plan.


Read more: https://www.forbes.com/sites/startswithabang/2017/11/07/the-gop-tax-plan-will-destroy-graduate-education/#3244e7d03d2f

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This is "frickin" criminal.

Under this plan, Graduate students would pay a higher percentage of taxes than most millionaires and billionaires

Example:

- A Research Assistant (RA) makes around $30K a year in a stipend
- Tuition for the RA is about $40K a year (paid by the university/grant or fellowship)

Currently, the student pays taxes on the $30K stipend, but that tuition is not taxed, because it's not income the Grad Student could ever touch. Under the GOP plan that tuition would be taxable.

So under the GOP plan, instead of paying taxes on $30K, the grad student above would pay taxes on $70K. That works out to about $13,200.

SO ON AN INCOME OF $30K, THE GRAD STUDENT PAYS $13,200 IN TAXES. THAT'S A RATE OF 44%

[Turbineguy]

1. In the republican concept of how the world should be

people should only be educated enough to operate the machinery that makes things work. Beyond that, education results in thought. Thought results in dissatisfaction. Dissatisfaction results in Democrats. Democrats take away their power.

[Initech]

2. The GOP - the death of the American dream.

Thanks for killing it, Koch Brothers!

[hertopos]

3. Yes, it is actually insane. U.S. university will lose all edges over other countries.

I was one of those grad students.

I worked as teaching assistant to obtain my Ph.D. ( My subject was Math.)

In science and math, current system attracts so many talents from all over the world.
Without us and them, many university cannot maintain current tuition level nor size.

This is totally insane and will destroy the university system as we know of.

I though eliminating state tax payment exemption and mortgage interest deduction were insane. They will
destroy us, middle class now.

Well, if it is enacted, it will destroy not only current graduate students but also the future of this country itself.

Well, this article is from forbes and I believe even corporation will see this is such an insane idea.


It is just unbelievable level of insanity it shows to come up with such an idea.


It is so wrong.

hertopos

[KY_EnviroGuy]

10. K&R. Thanks for sharing your experiences.

[dlk]

4. Uneducated People Are Much Easier to Manipulate and Con

[Bernardo de La Paz]

5. Republicons are eating the USA's SEED CORN. Educated people are the premier resource for the future.

Trump wants to give $11 BILLION per year as a subsidy to coal and nuclear power.

That would fund 360,000 graduate students at $33,000 per year each.

Now which group would generate more wealth for the nation in tRump's grandchildren's lifetime?

[NCjack]

6. In Trump world, all we need to operate the economy are:

land buyers, hotel construction workers to build Trump properties, beautiful people to work the jobs that interface with the rich customers, and not so beautiful people to work the dirty jobs unseen by the rich customers.

All others are not needed.

Oh -- wait, we need golf course people.

Oh -- wait, we need accountants to cook the books and lawyers to do the bankruptcies.

Oh -- wait, we need beauty pageant guys to search Eastern Europe for Trump's whores and future wives.

All others can leave USA, find jobs, and send money back to your children, which is very good for USA's economy.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

9. Whoa, now. Ya gotta have coiffeurs and cosmetologists by the hundreds.

Bigly.

And people to maintain the private jets.

What about McDonalds and KFC?

[NCjack]

11. Dang! You are right. That's why I can't be The Donald's Sec. of Commerce -- make too many mistakes

[mdbl]

17. ROFL!

[Perseus]

7. Dictatorships and corrupt regimes need to have ignorant people to support them

If you look at the voting from yesterday and how the demographics voted, the "uneducated" voted in high numbers for the republican candidate, and that is the reason why republicans would like to destroy education in the USA.

Charter schools is a good example of it, they are meant to provide profits for their close supporters, and the ultimate goal is to use them as indoctrination resources. If you look at resent dictatorships like Venezuela's, the regime changed the curriculum and the books to change history and to show that the regime was great, and responsible for good things...out of the "1984" novel.

And republicans dream of one day being able to be the "1984" in the USA, and to do that they need to make people stupid, ignorant. It is not a coincidence that book stores have evaporated, and don't blame it on Amazon because their highest profit comes from electronics, not books. People are not reading, they view youtube everywhere. You used to watch people on the NY subway reading books, now everyone is testing or watching stupid videos while their brains shrink. The damming of USA is by design.

Soooo...the GOP will do everything in their power to make education as difficult or impossible. Wonder why republicans fought Obama so hard on the student loans?

USA needs to wake up, "1984" "Can Happen Here", no country is immune from dictatorship, it is the people who allow it, and those who pursue it are like the lion who knows when its pray is vulnerable, and they will attack just like the republicans are doing using trump-the-decoy.

[They_Live]

8. "But I can file my taxes on a postcard." Idiots & Evils.

The GOP tax plan will destroy the America that we know.

[mr_lebowski]

12. Well hopefully if this bullshit happens, Universities will simply proclaim grad student 'teachers'

as 'exempted' from Tuition. Is that not within the realm of possibility, at least if liberals are in charge of Boards of Regents or something along those lines? Might also need state houses of the colleges home states in Democratic Hands as well, but I'd think at minimum if you have both those 'levers' as it were ... perhaps they can simply 'take away' the 'appearance' of them having received a 'free tuition' by making them 'exempt' from it in such cases?

If they can do so and have it survive a High Court battle, could create a scenario where all students from all over the world flock ONLY to Liberal Colleges in Liberal States ... which will force a change in a liberal direction in multiple other states as well ...

Trying to find a silver lining in a potentially pretty bad situation ...

[maxrandb]

14. That would destroy the university

The tuition is what pays for the universities cost of the grad program.

Research Labs, faculty and facilities are not free.

Meanwhile, you could send every kid in America that wants to attend grad school, and pay for it with what it's going to cost to cut the top 1percenters taxes and have money left over to fully fund 4 year college for everyone

[mr_lebowski]

21. My confusion is the article describes it as the University Paying the University ...

So I take it that's not really accurate? There's outside funds coming into the university that pays some or all?

[maxrandb]

22. Some of it comes

In the form of research grants. Some in the form of endowment, scholarships, etc.,

Unless we are going to tax scholarships as income.

Why not tax the GI Bill benefits as well.

Bottom line is that it is money the students never see.

So, in the GOP world, you can inherit 12 billion dollars from your dad tax free, but if you get 39K for tuition...pay up bubb

[metalbot]

29. No

The Republicans are proposing to tax the tuition on fair market value, so unless it is "free" to everyone, if it is being given in exchange for a service, then it's going to be taxable.

Realistically, this isn't quite as bad as it sounds, in the sense that the university really needs grad students for teaching and research spots, so if the taxes on tuition make grad school unaffordable, universities are going to pay grad student assistants more. So there may be more taxes collected on "free" tuition, but the person "paying" may be undergrads with higher tuition.

[AllyCat]

13. Horrible GOP

They are destroying us. On purpose.

[BumRushDaShow]

15. If successful, they will then ramp up H-2Bs for PhD employees from India or China

who will work for a fraction of the salary of American-born PhDs.

[Tatiana]

16. I know a lot of GAs (grad assistants) who qualify for food stamps.

Several have children and use a local food pantry to supplement their family's nutrition to avoid the stigma of having to apply for food stamps.

This plan is, indeed, cruel. But what else should we expect from the Grand Old Party of Russia?

[mdbl]

18. Trump university will re-open

and Betsy Devos will distribute vouchers to go there.

[Ilsa]

19. I would hope that professional organizations like the AMA would

condemn this in the tax plan. It could lead to shortages of doctors, psychologists, scientists, etc.

MADA: Make America the Dark Ages.

[Ilsa]

20. Called my congresscritter and

Referred them to the article. I hope the tax plan is dead, but they need to know that we know how awful this is.

[maxrandb]

23. Shamelessly kicking this

because it's not getting enough attention.

This needs to be called into every local radio station.

This issue needs to be brought up in every House District.

there should be hundreds of thousands of calls into the DC Congress phone-lines.

What's next? Taxing GI Bill benefits?

[Yavin4]

24. Meanwhile, the rest of the world are training their knowledge workers at a higher rate

But don't fret, there will be plenty of high paying jobs in the coal industry!

[Yavin4]

25. Republicans believe that only the super wealthy should have access to higher education.

Eliminating access to higher education for the poor and middle classes ensures that the progeny of the wealthy have no competition for such access.

[Freethinker65]

26. I got taxed in the 80s on my graduate tuition benefit at a University.

I worked as a full time research assistant making $9/hr, but got free tuition (until congress and daddy Bush took it away). It became a taxable benefit and I still resent having to pay the government to further my education, when no $ changed hands at the University for me to attend classes.

[MarvinGardens]

27. That is messed up.

I was one in the late 1990s. Was paid $15000 / year pre-tax and got a tuition waiver in exchange for teaching labs. We owed income tax but not FICA tax because they were not considered wages. I felt poor, on the edge, and ate a lot of pasta because it was cheap. Those extra taxes would have been a killer. Future students will be conditioned to take out loans, so that they can feel like struggling working class for decades after finishing their degrees. Heck, some of my colleagues took out loans in those days because they were unable to live on the stipend.

[modrepub]

28. Will this apply to the medical profession?

Not sure what status med school students fall under.

This whole concept seems short-sited because education generally leads to higher earnings and a more "happy, productive and meaningful" life (for example, divorce rates for college graduates are higher than non graduates).