The recent GOP tax reform proposal seeks to kill or reduce benefits for many colleges, students and borrowers paying off student loans. In other words, Trump's $1.5 trillion federal tax cut would mostly benefit corporations and the wealthy, making education even less affordable for lower-income families. He says the cuts will come just in time for Christmas.

If passed, the bill would combine three separate tax credits for higher education expenses into one, and eliminate both the student loan interest deduction and tax-free tuition reimbursement from employers. These tax breaks are key in providing the opportunity to attend college for individuals who otherwise may not have afforded it.

According to Time, the GOP plan would repeal the Lifetime Learning Credit and Hope Scholarship Credit, while extending the American Opportunity Tax Credit for one extra year. Obviously, this is not comparable to the benefits provided by all three, especially because the AOTC lets you earn up to $2,500 back if you spend $4,000 on tuition and fees, but for the fifth year the size of the tax break would be halved, so it would be worth only $1,250.

Additionally, the student loan interest deduction allows borrowers to reduce taxable income by up to $2,500 to offset interest payments on student loans. Because deductions are worth less than credits, this means the maximum benefit is $625, with the average benefit being $202. Still, this is a popular break, claimed by $12.4 million people in 2015. It can help pay for college loan payments for recent grads or books and other materials for current students.

The GOP also hopes to impose a 1.4 percent excise tax on the net investment income of private colleges and universities whose endowments equal at least $100,000 per full-time student. These endowments are a collection of tax-exempt donations and investments which pay for salaries, research, financial aid and other expenses. Donors often place conditions on their money, directing the funds be used for only athletics or to support specific kinds of research. This tax could have a negative impact on the number of donations received by these colleges.

The American Association of State Colleges and Universities said in a statement soon after the bill was released that the tax plan will undermine public higher education through changes to tax breaks for students and families, as well as tax benefits for colleges, among other aspects of the plan. “These changes together would make college less affordable for the vast majority of students who access higher education through public colleges and universities,” the group said.

As a student in my last year of college, and in a fair amount of debt, I can't help but find these cuts preposterous. Over the years, more students have been borrowing increasing sums of money to pay for college, making student debt a more prevalent issue than ever before. Yet the GOP doesn't seem to want to help students or recent grads in the slightest.

You would think that the leaders of a nation would want their citizens to be educated, as educated individuals have a higher earning potential, reducing the need for public assistance and the wage gap as a whole. The Republican House, unfortunately, does not have these goals in mind, and would instead prefer to aid rich businessmen over the general population.

There are certainly ways to improve any large institution, higher education being no exception, but getting rid of these tax breaks will be unnecessarily hurting a large majority of the country. As Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren explains in this video, "We could totally forgive every penny of student loan debt with the amount of money congressional Republicans are using to slash the corporate tax rate. And still have money left over."

As students, we are the future of America. Turning our education into a political punching bag and funneling that money towards the already wealthy is destructive and frankly, it should make you angry and upset. We don't deserve to be in even more debt in order to receive an education we worked hard for, and our younger siblings and future children deserve the same opportunities we are having taken out from under us.

This is a game that we literally and figuratively cannot afford to play.

For more info on how this tax plan can affect parents, students, and universities, check out this article.