Statement from Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton on the Administration's Restructuring of College Aid Formula

Today, we learned that the Administration has approved a plan that will effectively increase college tuition for working families. Instead of coming to Congress to alert us of the devastating impact the current formula would have on working families and ask us to develop a new formula that takes into consideration today's economic downturn, they passed the buck right on to working families. This formula will make it harder for thousands of Americans to go to college. So what good is a federal tax cut for working families if it is trumped by soaring tuition costs?

Once again, we have learned that the devil really is in the details of this Administration's tax plan. First it was 12 million children left out of the child tax credit, another 8 million Americans who don't qualify because they earn to little or too much, and now this-something that goes right to the heart of the American dream. For millions of Americans sending their son or daughter to college is a dream come true, and this education policy combined with this tax policy makes that dream disappear.

President Bush has said that a family with one child earning more than $40,000 will receive $732 in tax cuts. But the study released today shows that families in New York earning more than $50,000 will have to pay $700 more in college tuition. President Bush said that a married couple with two children and income of $75,000 will see their taxes reduced by $1,122. This new analysis shows that families in New York who earn $80,000 could be expected to pay an additional $1,100 or more in college tuition.

While this formula allows families to deduct some of what they pay in state and local taxes, it was done based on a formula that takes into account state and local tax rates from three years ago. And we know that over the last year in New York alone state and local taxes have dramatically increased because of soaring budget deficits.

No matter what the income is, this policy is bad news for New Yorkers who are helping their children get a college education, and this policy must be changed.

That is why today I cosponsored legislation with Senator Edward Kennedy (MA) that asks the Comptroller General and the Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance to immediately conduct a study to determine the impact on students and determine how best to fix this problem.