Event: hearing, "Making Education More Affordable: The Tax Code as a Student Aide"
Date/time: Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2001, at 10 a.m.
Location: 215 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Description: Sen. Chuck Grassley, Finance Committee chairman, will convene a hearing to explore a series of proposals to make education more affordable via the tax code. The committee will examine plans:
(1) to simplify and expand the deductibility of interest on student loan payments
(2) to make permanent the tax-free status of employer-provided educational assistance and apply it to graduate education
(3) to expand contributions to education IRAs and provide withdrawals for K-12 expenses
(4) to provide a tax deduction for out-of-pocket teacher expenses for supplies
(5) to allow the financing of school construction via modifications to tax-exempt bond rules
Witnesses will include a Kalona, Iowa, native who is a University of Iowa dental school student. She plans to specialize and will incur substantial student loan debt. The average dental school debt, not including undergraduate debt, is $100,000. Note: This is an exploratory hearing, not a mark-up.
Written Statements: Any individuals or organizations wanting to present their views on these hearings to the Committee are urged to submit a typewritten, single-spaced statement, not exceeding 10 pages in length, for inclusion in the hearing record. The date and subject of the hearing must appear on the first page of the statement. Five copies of the statement should be mailed to the Editorial Section, United States Senate, Committee on Finance, Washington, D.C. 20510, and also to the Minority Staff Director, United States Senate, Committee on Finance, Washington, D.C. 20510. Statements must be received no later than noon on March 1, 2001. Written statements must also be submitted on diskette in a format that can be read by personal computers (plain ASCII text is preferred; other formats will be accepted -- please identify format).