The tax break for tuition benefits has been a political football since 1978, when Congress first passed it as part of an omnibus tax revenue bill.

Still, Bank of America and other employers say, there is no decline as yet in the number of people using tuition benefits.

For example, employees who receive tuition benefits would have to pay taxes on them.

Stanford University cut its tuition benefits by more than half in 1999 but rescinded the policy after deeming the benefit too valuable a recruitment tool.

At least 2,884 additional students who are attending college received a total of $1.6 million in tuition benefits from private sources, the report said.

Low tuition benefits the wealthy without providing access for the poor.

Many recipients of employer-provided tuition benefits do not know the benefits are taxable.

"This tuition benefit has made things so much easier."

He added that the tuition benefit was one of the main reasons he enlisted.

And without the tuition benefit she had been counting on, she added, "there's no way I can afford private school."