After two years of repeated denials, Gingrich agreed on Dec. 21 that he should have consulted a tax attorney before using charitable donations to finance his college course.

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We believed Penn State was pristine in its football program because Joe Paterno was the gold standard of college athletics, charitable, as was his lead defense coach Jerry Sandusky.

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College tax credits, tax deductions for charitable contributions, mortgage interest, home equity loan interest, and other popular write offs will likely be reduced or eliminated.

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This first round of assessments of private schools has seen the approval of charitable status for three schools, Manchester Grammar School, Pangbourne College and Moyles Court School.

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But according to a study released this week by the non-partisan Pew Charitable Trusts, for the vast majority of young people, college still offers a path to financial success.

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John Havens, with Boston College's Center on Wealth and Philanthropy, is predicting that individual charitable giving will increase for 2010.

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