Support > Illumination
Alex Usher,
Higher Education Strategy Associates,
May 26, 2021
I do enjoy reading Alex Usher, and as usual he's on point through much of this article, but he seems to have a bugbear about arguments for tuition reduction that leads him away from the realm of sound reasoning. In this post, for example, he challenges the assertion that tuition tax credits are regressive. He writes, "any aid delivered via tax credits is exactly as progressive as a reduction in tuition." To a degree that's true. But it applies only if you owe taxes. Low-income students don't make enough money to pay taxes. So they don't benefit from the tax credit. But they would benefit from a decrease in tuition fees. And that's why tax credits, as opposed to fee decreases, are regressive. Now Usher should know this, and it bothers me that he writes about this issue as though he doesn't. Also: writing that the gap between rich and poor in terms of access is not increasing is all very well, but it's still a problem that the top quintile is at almost 80% while the lowest quintile is less than 50%, and it's apologist arguments like this that keep that unacceptable disparity in place.
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