Congress should reject proposals to make school more expensive

By Eden Iscil, Senior Public Policy Manager

A list of policy proposals currently under consideration by Republican majorities in Congress has become public. The 50-page document covers a range of programs and issue areas, looking for ways to pay for the new government’s “big, beautiful” swath of initiatives. Unfortunately, there are a bunch of policies thrown in that would make things worse for consumers. These three bad ideas related to education caught my eye. 

Taxing college scholarships. If you or your kid win a scholarship to help pay for college, the new Congress might want a piece of it. Under the proposal, they would take $5.4 billion each year from scholarship winners. This is especially harmful given a significant portion of scholarships are awarded to students who demonstrate financial need.

Making it harder for low-income children to eat breakfast or lunch at school. A plan to eliminate $900 million yearly in school breakfasts and lunches hinges on requiring children to “submit income verification documentation.” Time and time again, we have found that adding more bureaucracy to government programs reduces the number of people who enroll, even when they are eligible to benefit from the program. In this case, that means kids going hungry, which unsurprisingly is associated with worse academic performance. 

Forcing students to pay their loans while still in school. The answer to the $1.7 trillion student debt problem is not to force students to pay their loans “while actively studying.” Costs for college students are already sky-high; Congress doesn’t need to make them higher. 

Why are these ideas even on the table? Apparently, to give $522 billion to corporations by lowering the corporate tax rate. And, to cover the defunding of tax enforcement for the wealthy, a proposal the leaked memo estimates will allow high-earners and corporations to evade a total of $47 billion in taxes. 

Call your member of Congress and let them know they shouldn’t make students worse off just to pay for more corporate tax cuts.  

References (page number indicates page of Republicans’ memo where the proposal is located): 

Page 11, “Eliminate Exclusion of Scholarship and Fellowship Income” 

Page 34, “Require Income Verification for School Breakfast Program (SBP) and National School Lunch Program (NSLP)” 

Page 30, “End in-school interest subsidy” 

Pages 14 and 15, “Lower the Corporate Rate to 15 Percent” and “Repeal IRA’s IRS Enforcement Funding”