The tax bill passed by the House of Representatives threatens to devastate graduate education by reclassifying tuition waivers as taxable income–a move that, if it becomes law, would result in an untenable financial burden for many graduate students. It would also repeal the current Student Loan Interest Deduction, which would result in an increased cost of roughly $24 billion to student borrowers over the next decade. The Senate is pushing to pass its version of a tax plan, possibly as soon as this week.

You can help stop these provisions from becoming law. Please do these three things today to protect graduate education:

1. Support the grad tax walkout, which will occur tomorrow, Wednesday, November 29 at 1pm Eastern time, 10am Pacific time. You can support the walkout by downloading a sign to hang on your campus, walking out, or tweeting support using the hashtag #SaveGradEd. More information about the walkout here.
2. Share information about what’s happening on Facebook—click here to share a graphic.
3. Call 855-980-2350 to be patched through to your senator; tell them you oppose taxing tuition waivers for grad students.

Once the bill passes the Senate, the two chambers will then need to resolve any differences and pass a final bill before year’s end. Most provisions of the bill, if passed this year, are scheduled to take effect January 1st.

Stay tuned.

The AAUP