@soofdad I totally agree with you. This is totally disgusting
As this grinds closer to passage, it really is a failure of democracy.
By the representative model of democracy, it should be defeated because the majority of the country does not support it. By the trustee model of democracy, it should fail as it will be disastrous for a vast majority of the citizens. The bill is being rammed through again so there is no time to generate a scoring.
Are we really becoming an oligarchy this quickly?
The coming demographic issues are that 30% of the population will control 70% of the Senate seats.
@Dave_N - That is my fear exactly! That we are becoming an oligarchy.
Apparently they are planning a wholesale rollback of the Johnson Amendment (churches can’t be in politics), so we may be heading towards a theocratic oligarchy, which is a further (massive) threat to higher education in this country.
I agree, I have not heard one Republican Senator comment on the impact to higher education. It is disgusting. All I can say is that at least the tuition waiver tax for grad students isn’t in the Senate bill YET.
Not to distract from this, but in 11 states the state flagship seems to be the biggest employer in the state:
http://www.visualcapitalist.com/walmart-nation-mapping-largest-employers-u-s
And I think it is underrepresented in some states (like Michigan, which also has Michigan State, and Iowa that has Iowa State). Hurting higher education is dumb. Those Walmart states are going to see a drop in their Walmart employment numbers soon, too, when Walmart rolls out the stocking robots they’ve been testing – I bet the state universities will rise above Walmart in some of those states when that happens.
They mentioned it in the debate tonight, albeit briefly. The two Republican senators said it shouldn’t be in the final bill, but that was easy for them because it isn’t in their bill. They did not say they would fight to keep it out. Total cop out.
What debate?
There was a debate on CNN. It doesn’t mean anything so I didn’t bother watching.
MODERATOR’S NOTE:
Let’s keep to topic please. Trump-bashing is obviously not allowed. Comparisons to German universities to too far afield. Several posts deleted.
The Washington Post has a fairly balanced view from a Yale PhD student. She blames both universities and the Republicans:
Some of that money goes back to departments and helps cover overall department expenses. It might, for example, pay to equip the lab that the TA is teaching in. The TA has some kind of office location, and sometimes gets some admin support, paid for by the university and department. Some of department money goes to labs for their PIs, which they use. So it isn’t all just grant money being siphoned off to the university.
The problem I see is that most people feel colleges only cater to the elite and do not serve the average American. They feel it is just too expensive for the average joe.
Who here was not shocked the first time we did the EFC calc or found out how much a college felt we could pay after doing the CCS?
The price is going so high that most people are just priced out of the market. Only other option is to go deep, deep into debt.
I agree that the EFC is a shock.
What is most worrisome is the cost of public universities for their instate residents.
(A part of me still hasn’t recovered from the realization that costs almost tripled at my instate flagship. tuition seemed high but could be covered with a federal loan + part time job, grants/scholarships covered R&B+books. Now, federal loan + state grant + part time job would only cover half of tuition.)
However I don’t think people in general see universities as unworthy of concern because they “cater to an elite” due to costs - otherwise they’d be clamoring for their public universities to be made more financially accessible for all residents’ children. I don’t think most people feel all that connected to Harvard or MIT or Stanford and most have never heard of Williams or Pomona.
Sure, you hear people who’ve never been to college say “college isn’t worth it anyway, you just end up in debt”, but all in all I don’t think that’s the majority of people.
I do think many people don’t connect innovation and data analysis that rule our lives with research and even less those innovations and analyses with the training grad students receive.
However, lawmakers should know better.
However, these provisions of the bill will accelerate that trend, seemingly intending to take us back to the time when college was commonly a finishing school for the scions of the upper class, rather than a stepping stone for mass upward mobility and widely distributed economic growth that was the intent when states expanded low cost state universities in the 1950s-1970s.
A picture of me and my sign was tweeted by the University President from the tax waiver rally I attended today. 
The average PhD student at the University would see a $5,000 tax increase if their waivers are taxed. Lots of then got up and talked about barely getting by now, and not being able to do this. 
That’s what it comes down to, ultimately: it wouldn’t be possible. They couldn’t pay. So, they’d drop out or move to another country. As I said, Canada is very eagerly awaiting - with a 3-year path to full residency.
I hope my kid’s taxes only increase by $5000…because of her tuition waiver.
On NPR this morning…it sounded clearly like this IS in the senate version.
I’m beginning to feel that this bill will pass, no matter what. The only option I see, is to change the legislators as much as possible in the 2018 elections. Please VOTE, everyone.
The problem is no one will see the effects of this pos until after the midterms.
Well, my best guess is that if there aren’t enough graduate assistants, tuition will rise for undergrads, so people will realize that quickly. Obviously the link will have to be explained and that’ll make for good political ads from August till November.
It won’t solve the problem the country will be facing though, nor will it make life possible for grad students.
What a waste. What a colossal, tragic waste.
Hopefully it’ll inspire some grad or undergrad students to join “run for something”.