Action Needed to Save U.S. Public Education

From the Network for Public Education:

The stakes could not be higher.

If the GOP tax bill passes, your federal tax dollars will be used to support the private and religious school tuition of any student, no matter how wealthy, in every state. 


The tax bills of both the House and Senate would allow wealthy families like the Trumps and the DeVoses to divert up to $10,000 a year in taxable dollars to pay K-12 private school tuition.


What the rich should pay in taxes, will instead pay for elite private and religious school tuition--even to schools that discriminate against students based on race, religion, gender, primary language, disability and LGBTQ status. The wealthy could take advantage of this tax scam before their child is even born.


Tell your representatives to take out the expansion of 529 accounts. Tell them to fully restore the SALT deduction instead. Send your email here.

Make no mistake. The ultimate goal of this scam's proponents (who include Ted Cruz and Betsy DeVos), is a national voucher program. As DeVos recently announced, "We are just getting started."


The war on education does not end there.
  • Both the House and Senate bills dramatically lower the federal deduction for state and local taxes (SALT), making it tougher to raise funds for public schools. That means that you will be taxed on part of your income that was already taxed to support public schools.
  • The House bill also eliminates the tax deduction for student loan interest, taxes tuition waivers as income, and eliminates the small tax credit for teachers to buy school supplies.
Time is short. Legislators do not want to go home and hear from their constituents, who  oppose these horrible bills. The final bill is being discussed in conference now and the plan is to push it through before the holiday recess begins on December 18th


Click here to send an email today.

Then make your call. You can find the phone numbers of your Senators here.
You can find the phone number for your House member here.

Keep it simple when calling:
"I am calling to express my opposition to the tax bill. I support public schools and oppose the expansion of 529 accounts for K-12 private school tuition. Restore the SALT deduction instead."
Act today.  

As middle-class and poor students are left behind in public schools, public school funding will drop.
Fight for democracy. Fight for your public schools. Tell Congress that you do not want your tax dollars going to the wealthy to send their children to private and religious schools.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Huh?? If the GOP tax bill passes, your federal tax dollars will be used to support the private and religious school tuition of any student, no matter how wealthy, in every state. That doesn't make any sense.

If people are able to designate $10k as tax-exempt for education, that does not mean someone else is paying their private school tuition. It just means their tax bill might go down a few thousand dollars from the probably-hefty amount they will likely still owe (although it might go up for other reasons TBD). People who get this tax break will still be responsible for paying taxes (probably lots of them) and they will still be responsible for paying their private school tuition themselves.

(To be fair, public school parents are the ones getting the education tax break now--and your public education actually is partly subsidized by private school parents. I'm fine with that because I value a strong public education system, but it's kind of ironic, isn't it?)

seasick
Nope, it’s a direct tax break if you have your kid in private school.
Anonymous said…
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Pay4it, no name calling. You can state your opinion w/I doing that .
Anonymous said…
@Melissa, I didn't say it wasn't. My point was that public school parents have essentially getting a break on their taxes for years, since private school parents help subsidize public education--and would continue to do so even after a tax break.

Seasick
Anonymous said…
There is a finite pool of money for education, and every single citizen has a vested interest in a strong public education system. The public school taxes I pay benefit MY OWN FAMILY, even as I shell out $60K per year in private school tuition for my own kids. I neither need nor want a deduction for private school tuition. Not only do I want my children and grandchildren to live in an educated society, I am smart enough to realize that any tax breaks will flow directly toward tuition INCREASES, making private school tuition cheaper for those who can already afford it and less accessible for those who struggle.

Also don't forget that the public school taxes I pay are currently deductible as part of the State and Local Tax deduction. The Republican tax plan wants to eliminate the deduction for public school taxes paid while creating a brand new deduction for private school tuition? That's truly grotesque.

FNH



Anonymous said…
Looks like the Trump-DeVos loving Washington PC is stepping up their push for vouchers - though couching them under "tax credit scholarships".

CT

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