So apparently the house tax plan includes a mega increase on the graduate students income tax. I know a few graduate students whose income would get cut by at least 25 percent under this new bill. Those who are U.S citizens or have green cards are considering dropping out and those who are tied to their student visa have no idea what to do since most rely on stipends.
After the travel ban and stricter H1B visa rules this bill may actually decrease top students in STEM majors who want to pursue their graduate opportunities here. It’s sad that if nor most graduate students a good portion of them are internationals who would think twice after thinking of living with 15K or so in stipends after taxes and no opportunity to take loans. I know at least two graduate stuff who will drop out and start looking for jobs outside the university in tech companies.
I know many Foreign Graduate Students who are already thinking about moving to Canada due various reasons including better work Visa opportunities and such. If anything this bill will encourage them even further.
However so many people who don’t have problems working here after they graduate are also considering dropping out of school . Not many people can live on 15K a year while being motivated enough to to studying/research 10 hours everyday.
It’s not so much a “graduate student tax” as a university tax (or more accurately, reduction of subsidies, given the current tax status of universities). Graduate students would not lose net income if a larger portion of research budgets is allocated to their stipends, drawing from other parts of university budgets.
This proposed policy change might also have some positive effects. It will provide motivation for universities to slow the rate of tuition increases (this would reduce taxable income from free tuition). lt will also encourage research departments to become more efficient, by prioritizing projects and candidates with demonstrable value and timely results. Additionally, this could be stimulative to the economy, as private sector jobs become more attractive relative to prolonged university enrollment.
I should also cite some anecdotal experience that supports the idea of more research being performed by the private sector, rather than by students at universities. Graduate students (supposedly) tend to be motivated by publishing rates and abstract goals, rather than applied goals. While many practical technologies come from university research, much more is developed by commercial entities, like Apple, Boeing, Tesla, etc., in a more focused and likely more efficient way.
Of course, many concerns about this policy are valid, particularly its effect on US technological leadership. It’s probably not necessary to reiterate those points here. I doubt that the econometrics surrounding this tax policy have been studied as closely as they should have been.
i know a few grad students, and they can probably make more in the private sector but want the cred so they can make more in the future. as a grad student though, you’re like a research slave!
anyways, my thoughts on the matter, is to never tax education. education should be subsidized, always and forever as this will always improve society. it prolly preps people to become more productive in the private sector long term. also these people will prolly make more money hence you can tax them more later. but i think it should only subsidize citizens, the internationals should be charged up the ass and upfront cuz they will prolly not contribute to the domestic country but to their mother/father land.