THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, December 17, 1994 TAG: 9412170251
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A7 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY PHILIP WALZER, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 82 lines
President Clinton's plan to offer tax deductions for college costs would help attract students who may have been deterred by high tuition, university leaders said Friday.
For students and college officials, coping with state budget cuts and rising tuition, the proposal may be the best financial news in years.
``Obviously, it's going to make college more affordable, and you'll probably have more people going,'' said Anne Pratt, associate director of the State Council of Higher Education. ``It's likely to increase accessibility all around'' in Virginia.
Old Dominion University President James V. Koch said: ``Setting aside the issue of how it will be paid for, which isn't yet clear, this would be quite a boon to colleges and universities and individuals. It's, in effect, a major scholarship.''
Koch predicted that the deduction plan, if approved by Congress, would encourage more adults to return to school and allow more part-time students to attend college full time.
Clinton proposed Thursday that students or parents making up to $100,000 a year be allowed to deduct up to $10,000 a year in tuition for college or other post-secondary education.
For a couple earning $50,000 a year with two children, a $10,000 tuition deduction could save up to $2,800, said Jesse W. Hughes, associate dean of the College of Business and Public Administration at Old Dominion University.
At ODU's Webb Center, most students said they couldn't comment on the proposal because they were unfamiliar with the details or held strong opinions against Clinton. But sophomore Jonathan Bankhead said, ``That's a really good idea . . . It'll make it more possible for kids to go'' to college.
Virginia ranks among the 10 states in the country with the highest college costs. Virginia's research universities rank sixth in the nation in tuition, according to a national study this year by the state of Washington.
The average annual tuition and fees for an in-state undergraduate attending a state-supported four-year institution is $3,789, excluding room and board. That's 40 percent more than for the 1990-91 school year. Colleges have said they needed the tuition increases to offset cuts in state aid of more than 20 percent since 1990.
The tax deductions could especially benefit private colleges, said Martha E. Rogers, vice president for enrollment management at Virginia Wesleyan College, where tuition and room and board total $15,900 a year.
``There are numbers of families in America that don't consider private institutions,'' she said. ``They might want their sons and daughters to attend them, but they think it might be too expensive. This will make them more likely to consider it.''
She said other parts of the plan that would increase deductions for young children and for individual retirement accounts would also allow families to save more money for college.
Rogers said she didn't think the proposal would prompt tuition increases at private colleges. The General Assembly capped annual tuition-and-fee increases at state-supported colleges at 3 percent a year through 1996.
State officials have worried that the sizable tuition increases in Virginia may have kept students away from school, yet there are no studies to verify that claim.
After years of increases, enrollment at all Virginia colleges has stayed virtually level at 348,000. But administrators said that's because the number of students graduating from high school has declined.
Robert D. Holsworth, chairman of the political science department at Virginia Commonwealth University, said Clinton is attempting to outdo the Republicans in proposing the most acceptable tax break.
``He's putting forward a different tax cut, which he thinks will be more popular than the capital gains tax cut,'' he said. ``He can say: `I care about the middle class, not just the (wealthiest) 2 percent' '' of the population.
``It's a pretty smart move,'' Holsworth said. `` People do care about the education of their children, and this is a way to reach a broad section of Americans.''
In Virginia, ``students and parents have faced sticker shock in public education,'' he said. ``The prospect of making it tax deductible is likely to be very well-received.''
KEYWORDS: COLLEGE COSTS TAX CREDITS PROPOSED by CNB