“We
are pleased that the tax legislation agreed to by the Conference
Committee recognizes the importance of education benefits that help
millions of middle- and lower-income students and families finance a
college education. Unfortunately, some provisions in this legislation
will still make a higher education more expensive and undermine the
financial stability of colleges and universities.
The change to the standard deduction will result in reduced
charitable deductions, which could easily undermine all nonprofit
institutions, including colleges and universities, through a loss of
charitable gifts. We also remain concerned that changes to the state and
local tax deduction, despite some modest improvements made in
conference, will harm state budgets, with resulting serious implications
for state investment in public higher education. An excise tax on the
endowments of some private colleges and universities, regardless of how
many or how few institutions it affects, is a remarkably bad idea that
takes money that would otherwise be used for student aid, research, and
faculty salaries and sends it to the Department of the Treasury to
finance corporate tax cuts.
At a time when postsecondary degrees and credentials have never been
more important to individuals and the nation, this tax reform
legislation would make higher education more expensive and less
accessible. This is a big step in the wrong direction.”