on education... the way around this appears to be to convince a future employer to make a certain degree (i.e., the one you want) a "working condition fringe benefit" of your job. in such cases, the employer provided assitance is NOT considered part of your income for tax purposes.

example:
1. company A offers worker X $100k/yr to be the Director of BlahBlah
2. worker X neogitates (e.g.) a (reduced?) salary + $30k/yr in education assitance, with a MSEE "work condition"

conceivably, this could also push worker X into a salary range where s/he could claim Hope/Life-Long credits

now, the question is... can companies deduct any portion of the $s they spend on fringe benefits/employee education (and if so what %). obviously, if these are discounted dollars for the company, they are more easily had in larger amounts.