Publisher's Synopsis
According to the National Center for Educational Statistics, the costs of college education for the 2011-2012 academic year were estimated to be $14,300 at public institutions and $37,800 at private nonprofit institutions. Between 2001 and 2011, the costs for undergraduate tuition, along with room and board, at public institutions rose 40 percent, and the costs of private institutions rose 28 percent. It now takes at least 36 calculations for a family to navigate the overwhelming web of tax incentives for higher education in the tax code. Each of those tax incentives has its own definition of qualified expenses, student eligibility, and income thresholds. Education tax incentives cannot be allowed to drive inequality the way they do in today's flawed tax code. In 2011, families with incomes under $25,000 got an average of $930 in education tax credits, but families with much higher incomes can get a benefit nearly 3 times that size. For education to be the great equalizer in our society, access to higher education cannot be unequal.
