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Article snippet: For years, lawmakers in Washington have made swelling university endowments a focus of the populist backlash against high tuition and the concentration of rich students in elite universities. Now they are harnessing that anger with a proposed tax on private colleges and universities that have the wealthiest endowments. The House Republican tax plan released on Thursday includes a 1.4 percent tax on the investment income of private colleges and universities with at least 500 students and assets of $100,000 or more per full-time student. It would not apply to public colleges. The endowments are currently untaxed, as they are considered part of the nonprofit mission of the colleges. The new tax, if it passed, would bring in an estimated $3 billion from 2018 to 2027, one of many new revenue sources Congress is considering to pay for broad tax cuts. Universities criticized the proposed tax Friday as a blunt instrument that would curb their autonomy and reduce support for poor and moderate-income students. They said the G.O.P. plan was using revenues from universities to offset corporate tax breaks, not to further any educational or social mission. (Many middle-class families could also see tax savings under the plan.) “There is a difference between directing institutions to make sure they’re using their resources toward their stated mission — missions of education, missions of access — versus directing institutions toward filling gaps in Washington, and this seems to ... Link to the full article to read more