Classic Ron Paul: Education Scholarship Tax Credits Pro-liberty Education Reform

November 10th, 2017

Awake Goy

HON. RON PAUL

of Texas

in the house of representatives

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Mr. PAUL. Mr. Speaker, I rise to introduce the Education Improvement

Tax Cut Act. This act, a companion to my Family Education Freedom Act,

takes a further step toward returning control over education resources

to private citizens by providing a $5,000 tax credit for donations to

scholarship funds to enable low-income children to attend private

schools. It also encourages private citizens to devote more of their

resources to helping public schools, by providing a $5,000 tax credit

for cash or in-kind donations to public schools to support academic or

extra curricular programs.

I need not remind my colleagues that education is one of the top

priorities of the American people. After all, many members of Congress

have proposed education reforms and a great deal of time is spent

debating these proposals. However, most of these proposals expand

federal control over education. Many proposals that claim to increase

local control over education actually extend federal power by holding

schools “accountable” to federal bureaucrats and politicians. Of

course, schools should be held accountable for their results, but they

should be held accountable to parents and school boards not to federal

officials. Therefore, I propose we move in a different direction and

embrace true federalism by returning control over the education dollar

to the American people.

One of the major problems with centralized control over education

funding is that spending priorities set by Washington-based

Representatives, staffers, and bureaucrats do not necessarily match the

needs of individual communities. In fact, it would be a miracle if

spending priorities determined by the wishes of certain politically

powerful representatives or the theories of Education Department

functionaries match the priorities of every community in a country as

large and diverse as America. Block grants do not solve this problem as

they simply allow states and localities to choose the means to reach

federally-determined ends.

Returning control over the education dollar for tax credits for

parents and for other concerned citizens returns control over both the

means and ends of education policy to local communities. People in one

community may use this credit to purchase computers, while children in

another community may, at last, have access to a quality music program

because of community leaders who took advantage of the tax credit

contained in this bill.

Children in some communities may benefit most from the opportunity to

attend private, parochial, or other religious schools. One of the most

encouraging trends in education has been the establishment of private

scholarship programs. These scholarship funds use voluntary

contributions to open the doors of quality private schools to low-

income children. By providing a tax credit for donations to these

programs, Congress can widen the educational opportunities and increase

the quality of education for all children. Furthermore, privately-

funded scholarships raise none of the concerns of state entanglement

raised by publicly-funded vouchers.

There is no doubt that Americans will always spend generously on

education, the question is, “who should control the education dollar–

politicians and bureaucrats or the American people?” Mr. Speaker, I

urge my colleagues to join me in placing control of education back in

the hands of citizens and local communities by sponsoring the Education

Improvement Tax Cut Act.