November 28, 2006

Senate Committee Will Hear Views Next Week on Colleges' Tax-Exempt Status

The U.S. Senate’s Finance Committee will hold a hearing next Tuesday to examine the tax-exempt status of colleges and universities in the context of increases in tuition, endowments, and executive compensation, according to a written statement distributed today by the committee.

“Through the tax code, colleges and universities get billions of dollars in tax breaks,” the statement said. “Additional billions in tax relief go to students and parents to help pay for college. So it’s only logical and responsible that we look at what institutions of higher learning are doing to keep tuition affordable and education accessible to students from every income level.”

The hearing, dubbed a “Report Card on Tax Exemptions and Incentives for Higher Education: Pass, Fail, or Need Improvement?,” will feature testimony from the following speakers: Daniel Golden, deputy bureau chief in Boston for The Wall Street Journal; Bridget Terry Long, an associate professor of education and economics at Harvard University; James J. Duderstadt, an engineering professor and former president of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor; Patricia McGuire, president of Trinity University, in Washington; Susan M. Dynarski, an associate professor of public policy at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government; and Michael Brostek, director of tax issues for the U.S. Government Accountability Office.

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