The Tax Reform Bills and Education

How will the new tax bill really affect educators and students?

edCircuit Breakdown

The new Republican tax bills are out and there is an outcry over the ramifications of the proposed reforms. Some say that the tax bill will “doom post-graduate education in the U.S.”

Another expert says not so fast. Preston Cooper explains some of the details of the plan that shows a little less gloom and doom.

Meanwhile, the bill aims to cut a $250 deduction teachers currently earn for buying supplies for their classrooms.

edCircuit Analysis

Very few things get more people riled up than taxes, and the new tax bills floated by the new Republican administration is no exception. In education, teachers are especially worried about the House bill cutting the current $250 deduction they earn for the classroom supplies they buy out of their own pockets. However the Senate bill increases the deduction to $500, so we’ll see where this whole matter ends up.

One glaring problem with the deduction is that teachers have to buy supplies for their classrooms in the first place. This goes back to education funding, which is based on an entirely different set of taxes. The funding battles happen primarily on the state level and basically occur every year. With the amount of money available for education fluctuating due to a shifting tax base over factors like population size and property values, sometimes basic funding of classroom supplies gets cut or overlooked in the grand scheme.

Meanwhile, graduate students across the U.S. are planning a “walk out” to protest the proposal to tax their tuition waivers they receive in exchange for teaching and being lab assistants.

On both a higher ed and K-12 level, educators, administrators and students are keeping a close eye on what is happening in Washington.

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