NSA Wants College Expense Exempted From Income Tax

The Harvard Council of the National Scholastic Association announced its support of a House bill to allow student educational expenses to be exempted from the income tax.

Clifford Alexander '55, of Lowell House, chairman of the New England Council of the NSA, last night made public the resolution of the group favoring the bill which was adopted by the NSA's regional conference over last weekend.

The NSA resolution calls on students to write their Congressmen urging adoption of this act, introduced last January by Representative Multer of New York.

More Tax Exemptions

In voicing his support of the Multer Bill, Alexander explained that the bill would add to income tax exemptions the amount above the present total allowed which the student spends financing his education.

Alexander explained the bill. "It costs the average Harvard student about $2000 a year for tuition, books, room and board, and transportation to and from college. If his parents are sending him to college, they count only $600 of this off their income tax. The same ruling applies if he is working his way through. The Multer bill would allow the exemption of the entire amount."

He also said that the bill, as it now stands, will be retroactive to the beginning of 1952.

Alexander emphasized the voluntary nature of the campaign. "We don't want organized lobbying, with mimeographed postcards and artificial lists of names. The bill should be judged on its merits without insincere backing by people who will benefit from its passage."

The bill was supported at the summer meeting of the NSA. Over a thousand Simmons College students sent post cards to their congressmen.