{"id":15790,"date":"2013-01-03T10:38:03","date_gmt":"2013-01-03T15:38:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/?p=15790"},"modified":"2013-01-03T10:38:05","modified_gmt":"2013-01-03T15:38:05","slug":"federal-fiscal-deal-includes-tax-breaks-for-college","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/2013\/01\/03\/federal-fiscal-deal-includes-tax-breaks-for-college\/","title":{"rendered":"Federal Fiscal Deal Includes Tax Breaks For College"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_15791\"  class=\"wp-caption module image right\" style=\"max-width: 300px;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/2013\/01\/03\/federal-fiscal-deal-includes-tax-breaks-for-college\/1-3-cliffdive\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-15791\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-15791\" title=\"1-3 CliffDive\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/files\/2013\/01\/1-3-CliffDive-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/files\/2013\/01\/1-3-CliffDive-300x199.jpg 300w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/files\/2013\/01\/1-3-CliffDive.jpg 500w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">angelo-carosio \/ Flickr<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Congress avoided diving off the so-called &#39;fiscal cliff,&#39; but they only put off the deadline on spending decisions until March.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Lawmakers extended college tax breaks in the federal fiscal deal struck late Tuesday, but punted on long-term spending decisions such as federal education funding and financial aid programs, such as <a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/2011\/07\/29\/grant-program-critical-to-florida-students-colleges-target-of-debt-debate\/\">Pell Grants for low-income students<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"http:\/\/edmoney.newamerica.net\/blogposts\/2013\/education_tax_benefits_extended_fiscal_cliff_delayed_into_a_new_session_of_congress-7\">New America Foundation&#8217;s Ed Money Watch blog has a nice breakdown<\/a> of what was included in the so-called &#8220;fiscal cliff&#8221; deal.<\/p>\n<p>The highlights:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The American Opportunity Tax Credit has been extended until 2017 &#8212; This allows students to take a $2,500 credit up to four years for qualified college expenses. The credit was set to expire this year. Extending it has a cost of $67.3 billion over 10 years.<\/li>\n<li>Student Loan Interest Deduction &#8212; Can deduct up to $2,500 in student loan interest annually. The deduction is now permanent. The income limit for the deduction was scheduled to be reduced, and a 60-month time limit would be imposed. The estimated cost is $9.7 billion over 10 years.<\/li>\n<li>Coverdell Savings Accounts &#8212; Allows for up to $2,000 annual contribution to pay for higher education and K-12 costs. The deal makes the program permanent.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/edmoney.newamerica.net\/blogposts\/2013\/education_tax_benefits_extended_fiscal_cliff_delayed_into_a_new_session_of_congress-7\">You can see the full chart here.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>But it&#8217;s important to remember that the deal only delays the deadline on the budget-cutting portion of the &#8216;fiscal cliff&#8217; until March.<\/p>\n<p>Education Week says <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.edweek.org\/edweek\/campaign-k-12\/2013\/01\/school_districts_continue_to_f.html\">most school districts wouldn&#8217;t feel the federal cuts right away, but Head Start and other programs would<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>If the sequestration cuts do end up going through in March, most school districts wouldn&#8217;t feel the pinch until the start of the 2013-14 school year, because of the way that key programs, such as Title I grants for districts and special education aid, are funded. That gives districts a planning window to figure out how to implement the cuts without hurting student achievement\u2014and it gives Congress and the Obama administration more time to work out a deal.<\/p>\n<p>But other programs, such as the Head Start preschool program for low-income children, which is administered by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, would be cut right away. And the impact-aid program would feel the sequestration sting in April, when districts receive their next payments. That program helps districts with a large federal presence, such as a military base. More on the cuts <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.edweek.org\/edweek\/campaign-k-12\/2012\/11\/fiscal_cliff_cheat_sheet_what_.html\">here<\/a>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Stay tuned&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lawmakers extended college tax breaks in the federal fiscal deal struck late Tuesday, but punted on long-term spending decisions such as federal education funding and financial aid programs, such as Pell Grants for low-income students. The New America Foundation&#8217;s Ed Money Watch blog has a nice breakdown of what was included in the so-called &#8220;fiscal [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":15791,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[1038,1037,1087,1133],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15790"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/31"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15790"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15790\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15794,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15790\/revisions\/15794"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}