Graduate students across the country are staging walkouts and otherwise speaking out in protest of a provision in the tax reform legislation passed by the U.S. House of Representatives that could potentially add thousands of dollars to their tax bills. Currently, the tuition waivers that graduate students receive for acting as teaching assistants or research assistants are tax-free. The version of the tax overhaul passed by the House would treat those waivers as income, meaning they could be taxed. The Senate version of the legislation leaves the exemption in place, meaning the provision is one that would have to be negotiated by Congress before it can send the bill to President Trump to sign into law. “The tuition benefit is a really important component of enabling the best and the brightest to take the time that is needed for graduate education,” said Laura Perna, chair of the higher education division of the Graduate School of Higher Education at the University of Pennsylvania.…