Clinton plan may help U. students

President Clinton pitched a new tax credit to lower college tuition costs during his commencement address at Princeton University on Tuesday, June 4. Although the proposal is targeted at community colleges, many other students could benefit from the bill. "I believe the clear facts of this time make it imperative that our goal must be nothing less than to make the 13th and 14th years of education as universal to all Americans as the first 12 are today," Clinton said in a press release. A refundable tax credit worth up to $1,500 will be offered to offset first-year tuition expenses at any college. Students could get another $1,500 credit in their second year if they maintained a B average and avoided felony convictions for drug use. Clinton's speech was the third in a series of college commencements he is using to outline his accomplishments and second-term goals. Throughout the address he mainly focused on economic policy. He proposed to pay for his new idea partly by adding a $16 tax on each passenger leaving the country on international flights. Clinton also plans to raise taxes on exports by multinational corporations and from further auctions of the broadcast spectrum. A spokesman for Clinton, Mike McCurry, said in a press release, that one way to improve economic performance "is to expand college opportunities for the people of America." The Republican-controlled Congress is unlikely to pass Clinton's plan. It has still not approved his 18-month-old proposal to grant a $10,000 tax deduction for higher-education expenses, which he still advocates. Sen. Bob Dole quickly predicted that Clinton would end up raising taxes rather than cutting them if reelected. "Remember, he told you that in '92, and then gave you a big, big tax increase, so you'll read between the lines," Dole said in a campaign press release. White House aids say Clinton's latest tax-break proposal stems from his career-long dedication to boosting education standards. He signed a similar Arkansas scholarship program into law in 1991. Clinton's new proposal -- which he modeled after a three-year-old Georgia program -- is called America's Hope scholarships. It provides full tuition, fees and books for any in-state public college, or $3,000 toward private-college expenses, to any Georgia student who graduates from high school and maintains a B average in college. The program is paid for by revenues from the state lottery. "Clinton chose a $1,500 tax credit because that would cover costs at 67 percent of U.S. community colleges, although students would be eligible for it at any institution of higher learning," McCurry said. "Part-time students would be eligible for it at any institution of higher learning."