随着越来越多的大学取消贷款，慷慨的助学金计划受到威胁

【中美创新时报2024 年 11 月 25 日编译讯】（记者温友平编译）一些大学领导和高等教育观察家担心，慷慨的援助计划正受到两党政客的威胁，他们想对大笔大学捐赠基金征税，从而减少可用于免贷款和免学费计划的资金。《波士顿环球报》记者希拉里·伯恩斯对此作了下述报道。

四年前，当凯蒂·卡拉汉 (Katie Callahan) 选择大学时，她惊讶地发现，她家乡缅因州的一所小型私立大学是全国最具竞争力的大学之一，对她来说，就读这所大学的费用比她申请的作为保底学校的公立学校要低。

卡拉汉是一名教师和退休自由撰稿人的女儿，她于 5 月从科尔比学院 (Colby College) 毕业，没有债务。这让她搬进了 Beacon Hill 的一套公寓，步行 15 分钟即可到达她工作的初创公司，而不必从她父母在缅因州的家通勤上班。

“毕业时没有贷款意味着我可以申请工作，因为我知道自己有能力搬出去，去我需要去的地方，”卡拉汉说。“现在我工作了，我可以把收入中的大部分存起来，这些收入通常用来偿还学生贷款。”

科尔比学院和鲍登学院是一所规模较小但不断增长的私立大学，它们拥有雄厚的捐赠基金，不再将学生贷款纳入经济援助计划。

近年来，哈佛大学、麻省理工学院、布朗大学、阿默斯特学院、史密斯学院和威廉姆斯学院等学校都采用了所谓的无贷款计划，他们表示，他们的目标是向未来的低收入和中等收入学生发出一个明确的信息：如果你的学术能力足以被录取，你就有能力上学，鲍登学院招生和学生资助主任克劳迪娅·马罗奎恩说，“这对年轻人来说可能是一次变革”。

免贷款计划是大学吸引中低收入家庭的方式之一；许多学校还为收入低于一定门槛的家庭提供免学费优惠。例如，麻省理工学院周三表示，它已经扩大了其经济援助计划，家庭收入低于 20 万美元的本科生可以免学费，而最多只需支付 23,970 美元用于住宿、餐饮、杂费、书籍和个人开支。收入低于 10 万美元的家庭可以“不支付任何费用”即可接受麻省理工学院的教育。

然而，一些大学领导和高等教育观察家担心，慷慨的援助计划正受到两党政客的威胁，他们想对大笔大学捐赠基金征税，从而减少可用于免贷款和免学费计划的资金。高等教育机构的进步批评人士表示，拥有充足资源的富裕大学应该通过资助公立高等教育，为更广泛的国家青年做出贡献。与此同时，许多保守派希望惩罚那些他们认为是自由主义灌输工厂的大学，因为这些大学让太多学生背上了难以承受的债务。当选总统唐纳德·特朗普及其盟友表示，他们将利用联邦资金和税收从“激进左派”手中“夺回”大学。

2017 年，作为联邦减税和就业法案的一部分，33 所学校的捐赠基金收入（每名学生的基金超过 50 万美元）开始被征收 1.4% 的税。韦尔斯利学院经济学教授菲利普·莱文表示，自那以后，增加大学捐赠基金税收的努力不断增加。

阿默斯特学院校长迈克尔·埃利奥特 (Michael Elliott) 在 9 月华盛顿特区的一次活动上告诉记者，这对阿默斯特学院等依赖捐赠收入来支撑其大部分运营预算的学校来说是一个担忧。

“捐赠税会削弱我们支持社会经济多元化学生群体的能力——就是这样，”埃利奥特说。“这就是钱的去向。”

一些高等教育观察家表示，在最高法院去年禁止在招生中使用基于种族的平权行动后，寻求大学校园的社会经济多样性势在必行。

俄亥俄州参议员兼当选副总统 JD Vance 去年 12 月提出了一项法案，将大型私立大学捐赠收入的税率从 1.4% 提高到 35%。参议院民主党阻止了这项立法。

去年 12 月，万斯在参议院表示，大学“让整整一代美国人背负了超过 1 万亿美元的学生债务，而我很多反对的学生朋友希望俄亥俄州的水管工为学生债务减免买单，但我认为，如果问题出在大学，总统先生，他们就应该为此买单”。

目前尚不清楚万斯希望如何使用增税带来的收入。

特朗普的发言人拒绝评论他是否支持万斯的提议。即将上任的白宫新闻秘书卡罗琳·莱维特说：“除非直接来自特朗普总统或特朗普竞选团队，否则任何政策都不应被视为官方政策。”

在马萨诸塞州，一项针对超过 10 亿美元私立大学捐赠基金的法案悬而未决，提交 20 多个月后仍在接受收入委员会的审查。该法案将对大学捐赠资产征收 2.5% 的年度消费税。这将使哈佛大学每年损失约 12 亿美元。

“我们的目的是从积累的财富中拿出一点，并将其重新用于最终消除我们公立大学的入学成本，并投资于降低儿童保育成本——这将使整个马萨诸塞州的经济受益，”该法案的共同提案人之一州众议员娜塔莉·希金斯说。

非营利性倡导组织马萨诸塞州公立高等教育网络的执行董事、汉普郡学院的学生亨利·摩根 (Henry Morgan) 表示，州捐赠税的收入将筹集足够的资金，使公立高等教育对居民免费，从而帮助比私立大学招生更广泛的学生群体。

近年来，马萨诸塞州在降低高等教育费用方面取得了进展，包括今年早些时候为所有居民开设了免费社区大学，并扩大了四年制学校学生的助学金计划。例如，联邦、州和机构的助学金现在涵盖了调整后家庭总收入为 75,000 美元或以下的家庭在马萨诸塞大学校园的学费。

然而，捐赠税的反对者表示，私立大学通过助学金让高质量的教育变得负担得起，从而提高了社会经济流动性。莱文说，将贷款从助学金计划中排除对大学来说是一项昂贵的努力，这就是为什么美国最富有的大学，人均资源丰富，可能会提供这样的项目，而且往往是低收入学生学费最便宜的学校。

“当你采用无贷款计划时，你实际上是在放弃收入，”莱文说。

由于大学严重依赖捐赠回报来资助无贷款计划，莱文表示，更高的捐赠税可能会迫使这些富裕的大学削减或终止这些计划，这些计划不仅为低收入学生提供享有盛誉的学位，而且还为他们提供一个没有沉重大学债务束缚的未来。

北安普顿史密斯学院招生副校长乔安娜·梅表示，该学院将于 2022 年秋季从其经济援助计划中取消贷款。在政策改变之前，大约 37% 的史密斯学生都贷款。去年，只有不到 12% 的史密斯学生借钱。

“部分目标是真正让学生考虑毕业后的计划，而不必过多关注他们大学毕业后能赚多少钱来偿还贷款，”梅说。“[如果]学生想在非营利[工作]或艺术领域做一份薪水较低的工作，他们可以这样做。”

2008 年，鲍登学院推出免贷款政策时，51% 的大学毕业生通过贷款来支付学费。2023 年，这一数字为 22%。鲍登学院约有 53% 的一年级学生获得经济援助；新生平均可获得 68,000 美元的助学金。鲍登学院估计，就读该学院的总费用约为 89,000 美元。

据美国全国高校商务官员协会称，美国高校每年从捐赠基金中提取的资金中，用于经济援助的金额比其他任何类别都要多，包括学术项目、捐赠教职员工职位以及校园运营和设施。

缅因州沃特维尔的科尔比学院于 2008 年实施免贷款政策，此后增加了对中等收入家庭的经济援助。科尔比学院现在对不同收入水平的家庭支付的学费、住宿费和伙食费总额设定了上限，因此收入不超过 20 万美元的家庭每年支付的费用不超过 2 万美元，收入不超过 15 万美元的家庭每年支付的费用不超过 1.5 万美元。收入低于 7.5 万美元的家庭无需支付任何费用。

科尔比学院校长大卫·格林 (David Greene) 表示，他大约十年前刚上任时，学院在经济援助上花费了约 2800 万美元；如今，预算已超过 7000 万美元。

“我们刚刚将其作为绝对优先事项，”格林说。“我们需要继续扩大我们为这些学生提供的机会，我们必须想办法为他们提供资金。”

题图：凯蒂·卡拉汉 (Katie Callahan) 在她居住的 Beacon Hill 社区摆姿势拍照。Erin Clark/Globe 员工

附原英文报道：

Generous financial aid programs under threat as more colleges eliminate loans

By Hilary Burns Globe Staff,Updated November 21, 2024 

Katie Callahan posed for a portrait in her Beacon Hill neighborhood.Erin Clark/Globe Staff

When Katie Callahan was choosing a college four years ago, she was surprised to learn a small, private college in her home state of Maine, among the most competitive in the country, would be less expensive for her to attend than the public schools she applied to as safety schools.

Callahan, the daughter of a teacher and retired freelance writer, graduated from Colby College in May debt-free. This allowed her to move into a Beacon Hill apartment, a 15-minute walk to the startup company she works for, rather than commuting to her job from her parents’ home in Maine.

“Graduating with no loans meant I was able to just apply to jobs, really knowing that I could afford to move out and go where I needed to be for that,” Callahan said. “And now that I’m working, I’m able to save so much of my income that normally would be going towards student loans.”

Colby and Bowdoin College are in a small but growing cohort of private colleges with robust endowment funds that no longer include student loans in financial aid packages.

Schools that have adopted so-called no-loan programs in recent years — including Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Brown University, Amherst College, Smith College, and Williams College — say they aim to send a clear message to prospective low- and middle-income students: If you have the academic chops to gain admission, you can afford to attend, something “that can be transformative for a young person,” said Claudia Marroquin, dean of admissions and student aid at Bowdoin.

No-loan programs are among the ways colleges are appealing to low- and middle-income families; many schools also offer no-tuition deals for families under certain income thresholds. MIT, for example, said Wednesday it has expanded its financial aid program so undergraduates with family income below $200,000 can expect to pay no tuition, instead paying a maximum of $23,970 for housing, dining, fees, books, and personal expenses. Families earning under $100,000 can expect to “pay nothing at all” for an MIT education.

Some college leaders and higher education watchers, however, fear generous aid programs are under threat from politicians on both sides of the aisle who want to tax large college endowments, leaving fewer dollars available for no-loan and free-tuition programs. Progressive critics of the higher education establishment say wealthy colleges with ample resources should contribute to a broader swath of the nation’s youth by helping to fund public higher education. Many conservatives, meanwhile, would like to punish universities they view as liberal indoctrination mills that have saddled too many students with unmanageable debt. President-elect Donald Trump and his allies have said they will use federal funding and taxation to “reclaim” the university from “radical leftists.”

In 2017, as part of the federal Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, income from endowments of 33 schools with funds larger than $500,000 per student started being taxed at 1.4 percent. Since then, efforts to increase taxes on university endowments have proliferated, said Phillip Levine, Wellesley College economics professor.

That’s a concern for schools such as Amherst College that rely on endowment income to support a large portion of their operating budgets, Michael Elliott, Amherst’s president, told reporters at a September event in Washington, D.C.

“Endowment taxes would take away from our ability to support a socioeconomically diverse student body — period,” Elliott said. “That is where the money goes.”

Some higher education watchers said seeking socioeconomic diversity on college campuses is imperative after the Supreme Court banned the use of race-based affirmative action in admissions last year.

Ohio Senator and Vice President-elect JD Vance introduced a bill last December to increase the tax rate on income from large private university endowments from 1.4 percent to 35 percent. Senate Democrats blocked the legislation.

Colleges have “burdened an entire generation of Americans with over $1 trillion of student debt, student debt relief that many of my friends on the other side would like plumbers in Ohio to pay for, but I think if the universities cause the problem, Mr. President, they ought to pay for it,” Vance said on the Senate floor last December.

It is not clear how Vance wants revenue from an increased tax to be used.

A spokesperson for Trump declined to comment on whether he supported Vance’s proposal. “No policy should be deemed official unless it comes directly from President Trump or the Trump campaign,” said Karoline Leavitt, the incoming White House press secretary.

In Massachusetts, a bill targeting private university endowments over $1 billion hangs in limbo, still under review by the revenue committee more than 20 months after it was filed. The legislation would subject colleges to an annual excise tax of 2.5 percent on endowment assets. It would cost Harvard University about $1.2 billion a year.

“The intention is to take a little bit of the wealth that is accumulating and redirect it to ultimately remove the cost of attendance at our public universities and invest in bringing down the cost of child care — things that will benefit the entire Massachusetts economy,” said state Representative Natalie Higgins, one of the bill’s co-sponsors.

Henry Morgan, executive director of the nonprofit advocacy group Public Higher Education Network of Massachusetts, and a student at Hampshire College, said revenue from the state endowment tax would raise enough money to make public higher education free for residents, helping a wider pool of students than the private colleges enroll.

Massachusetts has made progress making higher education more affordable in recent years, including launching free community college for all residents earlier this year, and expanding financial aid programs for students at four-year schools. Federal, state, and institutional financial aid now covers tuition at the University of Massachusetts campuses for families with adjusted gross household income of $75,000 or less, for example.

Opponents of endowment taxes, however, say private colleges are advancing socioeconomic mobility by making high-quality education affordable through financial aid. Excluding loans from financial aid packages is an expensive endeavor for colleges, Levine said, which is why the nation’s wealthiest colleges, with vast resources per student, are likely to offer such programs, and tend to be the least expensive schools for low-income students.

“When you adopt a no-loan program, you’re essentially giving up revenue,” Levine said.

Because colleges rely heavily on endowment returns to fund no-loan programs, Levine said higher endowment taxes could push these wealthy colleges to cut or end programs that not only offer low-income students a prestigious degree, but also a future without the ball-and-chain of big college debt.

Smith College in Northampton eliminated loans from its financial aid packages in the fall of 2022, said Joanna May, vice president for enrollment. Before the policy change, about 37 percent of all Smith students took out loans. Last year, less than 12 percent of Smith students borrowed.

“Part of the goal was to really allow students to think about their post-graduation plans without having to focus as much on how much money they’re going to make right out of college to pay back loans,” May said. “[If] students wanted to do a lower paying job in nonprofit [work] or the arts, they could do that.”

In 2008, when Bowdoin launched its no-loan policy, 51 percent of college graduates took out loans to fund their education. In 2023, that figure was 22 percent. About 53 percent of first-year students at Bowdoin receive financial aid; the average grant is $68,000 for the entering class. Bowdoin estimates the total cost of attending is about $89,000.

US colleges and universities spend more of their annual endowment withdrawals on financial aid than any other category, including academic programs, endowed faculty positions, and campus operations and facilities, according to the National Association of College and University Business Officers.

Colby College in Waterville, Maine, adopted a no-loan policy in 2008, and it has since increased financial aid for middle-income families. Colby now caps the total amount families pay for tuition, room, and board at various income levels, so families earning up to $200,000 can expect to pay no more than $20,000 a year, and families earning up to $150,000 will pay no more than $15,000 a year. Families earning less than $75,000 pay nothing to attend.

David Greene, Colby’s president, said the college spent about $28 million on financial aid when he arrived about a decade ago; today the budget exceeds $70 million.

“We have just made it an absolute priority,” Greene said. “We need to continue to keep expanding the opportunities that we have for these students, and we’ve got to figure out how to fund them.”