GOP tax bill will discourage graduate education
The Republican tax bill is akin to a suspenseful novel with hidden horrors lurking on every page. At first glance, the bill was good old-fashioned conservative politics: tax cuts for businesses and the middle class intended to stimulate the economy. However, diving a bit deeper, more and more sinister provisions continue to emerge.
One seemingly small, yet vital, provision is the tax bill’s assault on graduate STEM education. The proposal is to tax graduate student tuition as income.
Although graduate students are technically “students,” graduate education is treated as a five-year or longer apprenticeship where universities cover the cost of tuition and students receive a small stipend. From an accounting perspective, the student never touches the tuition money and relies on the stipend to cover food and rent. However, the current bill would treat the student’s tuition on paper as income, in addition to the student’s stipend. Just imagine being taxed two-thirds of your income due to money that was never yours.
As the bill stands, graduate education will become unaffordable to most without significant familial support. Our society should fear that with fewer scientists and engineers in training, fewer medications will be discovered, technological advances will decline and our infrastructure will crumble. We shouldurge Congress, especially Pennsylvania Sens. Bob Casey and Pat Toomey, to support the many talented and bright minds of tomorrow to continue making American innovation and ingenuity great. PHILIP MANNES Oakland slow police response and pleased at the potential for further action. Importantly, this incident calls us as a community to make these values real. Justice and liberty for all are possible only when we address our history as a country and secure the benefits of liberty for all of our people.
The black community in Pittsburgh was born with the city and continues to help to build it, despite inequities in compensation and rights. We call on all Pittsburghers to stand firmly in solidarity with our fellow citizens — to stand together, particularly when they are threatened or under attack. We can no longer be silent. Black lives matter. TRACY BATON
ParkPlace KATHERINE DAVOLI SALLIE WORMER
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Regarding “U.S. in Recovery: Trump Is Helping Us Heal From Obama” (Oct. 30 Perspectives) by columnist Jay Ambrose: So Donald Trump is the cure for the Obama years? One could also argue that he is Russia’s cure for the Truman through Reagan
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years, which caused it to lose the Cold War.
Yes, Russia seems well on the way to recovery from that insidious virus of U.S. leadership, while we, on the other hand, seem to have caught a high-grade fever that threatens our very existence as a free society. BILL KING Butler