The GOP is Now Actively Discouraging Higher Education

When I graduate this May from Yale it will be with two masters, a lot of pride, and about $200k in student debt. After working for the state government and a solar company while living amidst the San Francisco Bay Area’s housing boom, I didn’t have a ton of savings to draw on when I went back to school. Nor could my family afford to foot the bill for three years of ivy league graduate school. Still, I was passionate about the environment and renewable energy’s potential to alleviate its stress, so I figured the foundation Yale would lay for my career would be well-worth the student loan burden. It’s a calculation I still stand by, as my years at Yale have already been tremendously rewarding. I’ve gotten everything I could possibly want out of my education, and feel well-positioned to be a force for good after school.

Nevertheless, $200k of debt is a hefty sum when contemplating a career focused on creating public rather than personal value. If I pay this back over thirty years, at my average loan rate of 6%, I’ll pay about $230k in interest over the life of the loans. This makes the student loan provisions of the GOP tax plan particularly painful. The House version of the plan makes several changes to the tax code aimed at generating revenue by raising rates on higher education. I’ll admit that complaining about the education taxes aimed at the wealthy…