With student fees constantly rising along with the cost of
living, students need to save every penny.
The Higher Education Affordability and Equity Act, sponsored by
Rep. Phil English, R-Penn., will help make it easier for graduate
students to pay for their education.
Students all around the country, both undergraduate and
graduate, are encouraged by the National Association of
Graduate-Professional Students and other coalitions, to participate
today in a “National Day of Action,” where students are
asked to log on to the Internet and lobby for the bill via
electronic letters to their legislators.
The UCLA Graduate Student Association, along with other GSAs
around the country, are campaigning for the bill, which is
currently at the House of Representatives, said Jared Fox, GSA
president.
The bill was originally started by graduate students, and
UCLA’s GSA was one of the four groups that helped start the
bill in 2002, Fox said.
To publicize the event, the GSA will ask their forum
representatives to tell their individual councils to contribute to
this letter writing campaign.
“At forum, we are going to fill out a letter to officially
commit our efforts to join these other institutions that are
officially endorsing this bill,” Fox said.
According to the UCLA GSA Web site, the act calls for an
expansion of tax exemptions for graduate scholarships, “as
well as a number of highly important tax incentives for
education.”
Students who want to participate can log on to the GSA Web site
and send out pre-made letters to their respective legislators
asking them to co-sponsor the bill and bring light to the issue at
hand.
Though the “National Day of Action” is today,
students can continue to send out letters throughout the year.
“Today is just a big push day,” Fox said.
Under the bill, both undergraduate and graduate students will
benefit in three major ways, said Alik Widge, who helped create the
bill and is also the legislative-concerns chair of the National
Association of Graduate-Professional Students.
Currently, graduate student stipends are fully taxable. However,
if this bill goes into effect, it will expand tax exemption to
cover graduate student stipends, Widge said.
“(It’s) plain silly. (The) government pays out money
but yanks part of it back. From a policy standpoint it just
doesn’t make sense,” Widge said.
In addition to expanding tax exemption for students, the bill
would also make it easier for students to pay back their student
loans after graduation.
“It makes student loans easier to pay back.” Widge
said. “Because as the deduction gets bigger, the bite out of
their total income gets smaller,” he added.
The bill also addresses students who are planning on attending
college in the future as well.
Calling for an increase in the allowed contribution to tuition
savings accounts will allow families to start saving more money for
their children’s educations, Widge added.
In order to move the bill forward and out of the committee in
the House of Representatives, a high number of signatures from
co-sponsors is needed.
Currently there are only 37 signatures, making it imperative
that students take part in this “National Day of
Action” to encourage their representatives to co-sponsor the
bill, Widge said.