The urgent need to recognize and value academic labor

Two Harvard professors share their thoughts on the latest from the US Republican Party’s tuition waiver tax plan.

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Recently the House of Representatives essentially voted to destroy graduate education in the United States. By taxing tuition waivers as income — and therefore treating their taxable income as two to three times the amount graduate students are actually paid — the Republican tax bill would effectively put graduate study outside of the reach of all but the independently wealthy. While the Senate version of the tax bill does not include this provision, it is far from certain what the final bill after the reconciliation process will look like.

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Changes to the U.S. tax code will harm graduate student mobility and career prospects

Increased financial burden for students will harm science in the long run, says Aliyah Weinstein.

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A recent editorial in Nature described the harm that newly proposed changes to the United States tax code will have on graduate student finances. If passed, these regulations — ostensibly designed to simplify tax calculations — will eliminate benefits previously given to students. Of particular harm to graduate students and the scientific world would be the elimination of the tax-free status of tuition waivers.

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