We note with great concern the proposal currently before the US Congress that aims to tax graduate students on tuition remissions.
According to theChronicle of Higher Education:
Nationwide, about 55 percent of all graduate students had adjusted gross incomes of $20,000 or less... and nearly 87 percent reported incomes of $50,000 or less. At the same time, master’s-degree students received tuition waivers averaging nearly $11,000, and doctoral students got waivers averaging more than $13,600.
To raise taxes on this population would dramatically reduce the number of students who can afford higher education, and in the absence of additional funding it would especially disadvantage students who have historically been underrepresented within graduate programs in the US.
We stand firmly with the 30+ national learned societies that have called for opposition to the proposal.