One of our readers, a serious supporter of Ron Paul, commented that
Education should not even be the business of local government. It should be a private, voluntary arrangement between children, parents, and teachers. Only very foolish parents would turn their children over to the tax-sucking bozos.That got me to wondering, exactly what does Ron Paul think about public education. I went to the issues section at Paul's homepage. Like most candidates he provides short collections of bumper sticker slogans on a few issues his advisers must think his followers find important. Debt and taxes, American Independence and Sovereignty, War and Foreign Policy, Border Security and Immigration Reform, Privacy and Personal Liberty, and Property Rights and Eminent Domain are all covered. I didn't find anything about Paul's thoughts on public education.
Next I googled Ron Paul and public education. I discovered that at least since 2001 Paul has supported giving every American family with school age children a $3,000 per child tax credit to offset money spent purchasing education for their children from any school of their choice. Paul said in 2001 that his
Family Education Freedom Act also benefits parents who choose to send their children to public schools. Parents of children in public schools may use this credit to help improve their local schools by helping finance the purchase of educational tools such as computers or to ensure their local schools can offer enriching extracurricular activities such as music programs. Parents of public school students may also wish to use the credit to pay for special services, such as tutoring, for their children.It doesn't sound like he is in favor of completely dismantling public schools, but a tax credit? Hummm.
A little more research and I found that on June 9, 2007, the Free Republic's Remember_Salamis posted something he called "Ron Paul's stance on Education Spending." The Free Republic piece looks a lot like a bill. It refers to something called the "Family Education Freedom Act of 2007." A search of Thomas confirms that Paul introduced such a bill in February. It ups the old $3,000 credit to $5,000 per child. I guess Paul realized it was an election year and $3,000 doesn't sound all that attractive.
The credit would be one honking expensive government handout, so it has been referred to the House Ways and Means Committee. It only has 5 co-sponsors and hasn't made much headway.
Now let's figure out who benefits from Paul's little government give away. Paul proposes a tax credit, not a tax deduction. That means it reduces taxes for people claiming it dollar for dollar. So if you pay less than $5,000 in income taxes, your benefit is limited to the income tax you would otherwise pay. Families who don't pay income taxes won't benefit at all.
Families who try to send their kids to private schools still have to pay the private school the full tuition. Right, if you are regular Americans paying less than $5,000 in income taxes, you have plenty of extra money to send use when sending your kids to private school.
Paul's give away is a $5,000 credit per child. If you have three kids in school reduce your taxes $15,000.
It looks like Paul's education give away is aimed at families who are already on top, not families struggling to achieve the American dream. A lot of young doctors with several kids will find Paul's give away really attractive.
People without kids don't benefit either. I do pay more than $5,000 in taxes, but since my youngest child just graduated, I don't have any kids in school. I don't get any benefit from this give away. It doesn't reduce my taxes one little bit.
It's my America too. I would like to know how my tax money is being spent. I would like to know that everybody I encounter has a legitimate chance of getting ahead without joining the mob or dealing drugs. In the long run universal quality education cuts down on crime and leads to a stronger economy. At least it always has.
I guess you might point to the bill's use of the term "qualified educational institution" as giving the government some say in who receives the money. If you actually read the bill you see that the term "qualified educational institution" is pretty darn broad.
Qualified educational institution.--The term 'qualified educational institution' means any educational institution (including any private, parochial, religious, or home school) organized for the purpose of providing elementary or secondary education, or both."Any" is pretty broad and I have known some home schoolers who were less than rigorous in their efforts.
Paul doesn't say how he is going to make up the short fall in the Federal budget created by his targeted tax credit. I'm for tax cuts too, but only if they are responsible tax cuts accompanied by expenditure reductions.
Ron Paul might be right on some issues, but if you really look at what he has proposed on education he is just another borrow and spend Republican in favor of giving those who have more while making America poorer for all of us.
