With College Tuition Up 35 Percent In Upstate NY, Schumer Fights To Restore Critical Tax Break That Saves Middles Class Families Thousands Of Dollars Every School Year
Schumer Authored College Tuition Tax Deduction, Which Allows More than 100,000 Upstate NY Families Every Year To Deduct Thousands of Dollars in College Costs, Expired This Year
New Schumer Study Finds College Tuition in NY has Gone Up More than 35% Over Last 5 Years
New Schumer Study Shows Tuition Up In Every Region of the State; Capital Region Colleges are up 37%; Central N
Today, U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer revealed that hundreds of thousands of upstate New York middle class families could lose a critical tax break that helps pay for the skyrocketing cost of college tuition if Congress doesn't act by the end of the year. The Schumer-authored "College Tuition Tax Deduction" allowed more than 102,000 upstate New York middle class families to deduct up to $4,000 of their kids' tuition from their taxes. Schumer said this tax deduction is needed now more than ever as he will release a new report showing that, since the 2000-2001 school year, the price of going to college in upstate New York has jumped more than 35 percent. In response, Schumer called on Majority Leader Senator Bill Frist to bring legislation to the Senate floor to extend the tax break.
"A college education has become a necessity that's priced as a luxury - and it's breaking the bank for students and their families throughout the nation," Schumer said. "To hard-working New York parents, skyrocketing tuition costs mean debt and second mortgages. They mean lost family vacations and hard choices about how many children can be sent to school. The college tuition tax deduction makes these choices a little easier by saving families thousands of dollars every year."
The college tuition tax deduction, passed into law in 2001 and based on bi-partisan legislation written by Schumer, originally allowed middle-income families to deduct $3,000 from their tax return. The deduction was raised to $4,000 a year in 2004. Last year, single filers who made up to $65,000 a year and married couples with incomes up to $130,000 qualified for the tuition deduction. There was also a smaller, $2,000 deduction for those who earned more.
According to the Internal Revenue Service, an estimated 102,737 upstate New York middle class families took advantage of the tax deduction during the 2003 tax year, the last year for which data is available. In 2003, 3.6 million families took advantage of the deduction, saving them about $4.5 billion
However, in May, language extending the tax break for another three years was eliminated from the tax reconciliation bill in favor of restoring $5 billion worth of tax breaks of the major oil companies.
Schumer today said that the critical tax break that saves middle class families thousands of dollars every year is needed now more than ever because college tuition costs are continuing to skyrocket. In his report, Schumer revealed that the average price of going to college in upstate New York is up more than 35 percent since the 2000-2001 school year. Five years ago, the average price of tuition, not including room, board, and books, was $9,151. Now, it is up to $12,334. This includes tuition at both public and private colleges and in-state and out-of-state tuition. Below is how the numbers break out across the state:
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
http://schumer.senate.gov/SchumerWebsite/pressroom/record.cfm?id=265154&&year=2006&