The House bill targets two other tax benefits for educators. It would end the tax-free status of tuition scholarships for graduate students and for children of professors. However, Ken Kies, chief of staff to the Congressional Joint Tax Committee and a key Archer advisor, has long believed that TIAA-CREF should be taxed like a commmercial company. But pension contributions are lost if a worker frequently changes jobs. TIAA-CREF was created precisely to solve this problem for educators and researchers.
Teachers often have itinerant careers.
Thanks to TIAA-CREF, educational institutions pay into a common pool, so that all pension credits count. TIAA-CREF has long been a model for legislators seeking universally portabile pensions. But even Rep. Archer is not proposing to tax the pension plans of construction workers and public employees. The Senate tax bill has no TIAA-CREF provision, and it remains to be seen which version will prevail. The Clinton administration has not made the issue a priority.