To the Editor:
Re “Winners and Losers in G.O.P. Tax Overhaul” (news article, Nov. 3): Taxing higher education to pay for other reductions in the House Republicans’ draft tax reform bill, with the potential to negatively affect benefits like student and family education credits and deductions as well as college endowments, is bad public policy.
Higher education attainment is more important than ever, to our economy and to individuals. The colleges and universities affected would end up with fewer resources to spend on the need-based financial aid that helps low- and middle-income Americans go to and finish college.
Many of the institutions targeted already spend significant amounts on need-based aid, and have committed to do even more through programs like the American Talent Initiative. We cannot afford to slow this momentum. These universities would also have fewer resources to spend on cutting-edge research that fuels innovation and discovery.
Just consider the effect of this legislation on America’s long-term economic growth and competitiveness. Who will benefit by taking resources away from higher education — these high-return investments in American prosperity — and transferring them to tax cuts?
Not the majority of the American people.
CATHARINE BOND HILL
NEW YORK
The writer, president emerita of Vassar College, is the managing director of Ithaka S+R, a strategy and research group for education and the arts.
