tax breaks

[Douglas <dougwils@moscow.com>]

Dear visionaries,

Thanks to Sharon Sullivan for the pie chart. Another good argument
against a heavy defense budget (not yet mentioned) is that periodically
we wind up with someone like Bill Clinton as 
commander-in-chief.

Ted raises the interesting question of "tax breaks." Note first
that allowing an entity to keep its own money is being considered a
"gift" from the government. And because it is considered a
gift, it is not surprising that the principle that "he who takes the
king's coin becomes the king's man" comes into operation, at least
in the gummint's mind. Thus Bob Jones University, which once had 501(c)3
status, had that status revoked because of their (very unbiblical)
prohibition of inter-racial dating. That policy was not in line with the
official policy of the United States government. Now the fact that Bob
Jones was in the wrong on the facts of the case ought not allay the
concerns of private educators at all. It is therefore best for private
institutions who care about their independence to avoid as many financial
entanglements with the government as they can. This is why I am opposed
to all voucher proposals, for example 

Ted says, "The public schools have a legal obligation to educate all
children, poor or not . . ." Fine. So why don't they? Take the
school systems of the inner cities, for example. How many thousands of
kids graduate from these institutions annually with an inability to read
their own diplomas? Why make them sit in a classroom for twelve years?
They already didn't know how to read.

In the debate between private and government schools, it is completely
beside the point to say that if we went to a system of private schooling,
then millions of disadvantaged kids would not get an education. That is
what is happening now. They are not getting an education
now. You know, as in right this minute.

And, incidentally, this claim is not made on the basis of comparing
private schools with the government schools. Just compare the government
schools of today with the government schools of fifty years ago. Anyone
who maintains that there has not been a comprehensive erosion of
standards across the board has not been paying attention.