On the Table

During the campaign, President Clinton proposed several education tax incentives which are mostly aimed at helping middle class families pay for college.

The "Hope Scholarship" would provide $1,500 for each of the first two years of college for students who maintain a B average. The President's stated goal for this program is to make the first years of college as accessible as the four years of high school.

Over the course of six years, the scholarship would cost an estimated $25.1 billion.

Clinton has also proposed a $10,000 annual income tax deduction for tuition payments. Families earning less than $100,000 per year would be eligible unless they already receive the Hope Scholarship.

The Education Department estimates that the program would cost the government $17.8 billion in lost tax revenues over six years.

White House aides say that both programs are paid for in the President's balanced budget plan, which is expected to be released in February.

Besides these two main proposals, the President has also suggested increasing Pell Grant funds and allowing parents to withdraw money from IRAs for college tuition without penalty.

Republicans, however, have not proposed any major higher education assistance programs. A smaller tax incentive being considered by Republicans would allow college graduates to deduct the interest they pay on their student loans.

That deduction, which was removed from the law with the 1986 omnibus tax reform legislation, would cost significantly less than the President's proposals and would assist graduate students who will not benefit from the President's plans.

Harvard's Position

The University has been lobbying heavily on behalf of financial aid funding for the past two years.

"The situation has changed dramatically," says Harvard's Vice President for Government, Community and Public Affairs James H. Rowe III '73. "At the beginning of the last Congress, the House leadership proposed saving $10 billion from student aid funds."

At that time Harvard quickly joined other universities in opposing those cuts. After last year's budget confrontation, funding for college assistance was maintained, Rowe says.

In fact, as the election progressed, both parties became engaged in a bidding war to offer more funds for college financial aid, Rowe says.