Sunday,
November 26, 2017
The Republican tax plan winding its way through
Congress includes a special middle finger to the nation's graduate students.
It's a little bit wonky, so stay with me here.
I'll explain how it affects me, since I'm an actual graduate student.
Going to grad school would've been entirely out
of reach for me if I had to pay full tuition for my education. Getting a PhD
takes at least five years and often more. I don't have a spouse, trust fund, or
parents to cover my cost of living or my tuition.
If I had to pay for my own education, it
would've been simply out of the question. This is hardly uncommon.
How many adults do you know can forego five or
more years of income while simultaneously paying thousands of dollars in
college tuition each year?
Since the answer to that question is "not
many," universities employ graduate students as poorly paid labor in
exchange for an education, health insurance, and a very low wage.
In my case, I've worked as a teaching assistant
for the past three years while also attending classes at University of
Wisconsin-Madison. Other students worked as research assistants. A lucky few
got funding that allowed them to pursue their own research. The rest of us had
to work.
Forbes mentions some magical places
where graduate students are given stipends up to $50,000 per
year. At Wisconsin, we weren't so lucky.
My take home pay was about $1,300 per month,
nine months of the year. The other three months (summer) I got nothing. No, it
wasn't enough to live on. I'm deeply in debt with student loans.
Then there's the matter of tuition. Graduate
students like me often don't have to pay it.
If a school charges $20,000 per year in tuition
but waives it for graduate students who work as teaching or research
assistants, the new Republican tax plan wants to count that as $20,000 in
taxable income.
You do the math: If a student is living on a
tiny stipend and maybe some loans, how on earth can he or she afford to pay
thousands of extra dollars in taxes?
You may not care about graduate students. It
affects 3 million of us, but you may not be one yourself.
Odds are, however, that you're affected by
graduate students. Graduate students do a lot of the grunt work in universities
while working on their doctorate degrees. They teach students, do research, and
develop new technologies.
And they go on to become professors and experts
themselves.
Without graduate students, we won't have
scientists. Every PhD scientist was once a graduate student.
Without graduate students, we won't have
professors. If you have an associate's or a bachelor's degree, that was only
possible because your professors were able to get a graduate education.
Gut graduate education in America and you'll
gut education as a whole.
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