According to the Institute of College Access, the majority of you will leave WSU with about $29 thousand in debt. Skeptical? Check the National Student Loan Data System to see how much you currently owe.

While your access to “higher” education as an undergraduate continues to dominate the halls of Congress, concern for your wellbeing quickly dissipates as you head out of Pullman. You will come to find that your bachelor’s degree does not open as many doors as once thought.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that in the next five years, jobs that require a master’s degree at entry level, but do not require previous work experience will grow by over 20 percent. Those of you interested in becoming counselors, social workers, therapists, nurses, and social scientists have the opportunity to gain one of 369,000 jobs to become available in 2022, but you will need a master’s degree to do so, according to the Council of Graduate Schools.

Imagine for a moment you decide to expand your knowledge and skills by entering into a graduate whether masters or doctoral, or professional program. You enroll because you desire to benefit society. Yet, despite the Nation’s need of advanced degrees, your burden of debt becomes greater. You are now a part of “the forgotten.” Although you just stepped higher in higher education you are penalized for your passion to pursue knowledge and gain needed skills to repair a broken society.

You now make up only 13 percent of all federal loans, but constitute 77 percent of net profits from loan interest, according to the U.S. Department of Education. You are stripped of your ability to obtain subsidized loans from the federal government, which means as you attend class and perform research your loans are accruing interest upon interest.

As a graduate and professional (G-P) student you are required to pay higher interest rates on your loans, even though you are three times less likely to default on those loans. Not only are you paying higher interest rates, but your total debt is mounting higher and higher because you have no assistance in paying the loan interest while you are pursuing further education and learning.

The mere fact that you decided to pursue a G-P degree also places you at risk in the tax arena. As an undergraduate you had access to the American Opportunity Tax Credit (AOTC), but this credit does not extend past four years of schooling. The Lifetime Learning Credit (LLC) was also available during your undergraduate education, but becomes your only life-line as a G-P student. Unfortunately, the policy ideas of the 114th Congress aim to eliminate the LLC without extending the availability of the AOTC. With bachelor’s degrees averaging five years for completion and doctoral degrees averaging seven and a half years, you can forget about seeing any tax breaks.

Maybe relief comes by way of assistantship funding and a tuition waiver. Twenty-four percent of students pursuing doctoral degrees and just over 6 percent of students pursuing master’s degrees received tuition waivers in the 2011 – 2012 academic year.

Why? Because your tuition waiver is now the object of discussion for tax reform. Section 117(d) of the Federal tax code excludes your tuition waiver from being reported as taxable income. Unfortunately, that may not continue into the future. Members of Congress are proposing the elimination of this provision which “would increase tax liability for graduate students on ‘income’ they never see,” according to the Council of Graduate Schools.

For instance, as a graduate student at WSU you may receive an assistantship award of $14,500 and a tuition waiver of $11,746. Under current law, your tax liability would be $8,550, costing only $848 in federal income tax. However, if tuition waivers are considered taxable and the LLC is eliminated, your tax liability increases to $20,300 and your federal income tax would increase by 200 percent, with you owing an extra $1,708.

Now that you are one of us, know that 33 percent of G-P students have at least one child and on average are 31 years old, meaning we do not qualify for our parent’s health insurance. However, when we speak with our Congress members about the concerns addressed above we are told we can afford to take on debt because we will make six figure incomes.

That statement does not add up; the median annual wage for jobs that require a master’s degree at entry level was only $63,400 in 2012. Yet, the average burden of debt for a master’s is $57,000, for a PhD is $75,000, and for a professional degree is $146,000, or more than five times greater than the undergraduate average, according to Mark Kantrowitz from FinAid.org.

Higher education and tax reform can be influenced by your voice. Hallie Thompson, Director of Legislative Affairs for the National Association of Graduate-Professional Students (NAGPS) says “access to education from K-12 to community colleges, four-year undergraduate education, and G-P education are all important for American society.” We agree, which is why WSU GPSA and ASWSU are supporting the NAGPS National Call-Congress Day tomorrow, Wednesday April, 8. Visit NAGPS and GPSA Facebook pages for details.

Together we need to urge Congress to extend availability of Pell Grants and LLC, reunify student loan rates, reinstate in-school interest subsidy for G-P student loans, and protect the 117(d) tax code provision.

Start the conversation. #GradsHaveDebt2.