I did a fair bit of research on the impact of Trump’s tax plan on education policy on Friday and Saturday. For various reasons, it’s not going to pan out into an article, so I’ll park that info here.

One of the proposals in the bill is to tax private college endowments at the same level as foundations.

The Atlantic had a piece just a few weeks ago saying that such a proposal might enjoy bipartisan support. Others with liberal credentials have criticized the untaxed endowments in recent years.

Taxing the rich college’s endowment just the same as foundations would seem to be a Democratic plan, right? Even better would be a Robin Hood type scheme that would redistribute that money to colleges that primarily educate low income students or to the students themselves. But I can’t find any statements by Democrats in Congress supporting a plan like this. And it’s not like it’s never been discussed before. In 2016, the Senate Ways and Means committee had hearings on this topic and made 50 or so colleges provide them with reports about what they do with their endowments. There was plenty of time for the democrats on that committee or on the education committee to say something. None did. Not even Bernie.

I did a little on the plan to tax tuition grants, but not enough to write anything about it yet.