The GOP tax plan is intended to limit the potential for higher education to enable class movement.
The GOP tax plan is calculated not just to shift wealth upward, but also to remove some of the educational tools that make it possible for people to shift their own class status. It’s not just tuition waivers. As detailed in The Atlantic, spread across undergraduate and graduate education, the GOP plan would strip funding from all fields, and sow chaos. For example, Republicans also want to eliminate student loan interest deductions and force students who don’t graduate to repay Pell Grants. Overall, according to Congress’ Joint Committee on Taxation, the cost of education would go up by $71 billion over 10 years.
The Republicans have crafted a vision for American higher education in which only the already-elite can chase their dreams, study deeply, develop new ideas, and become the creators of tomorrow. The GOP tax plan is what class warfare looks like.