To the Editor
There is a battle brewing over the recent passage of HB93, the Idaho Parental Choice Tax Credit. Many teachers and teacher union members are fighting to declare it unconstitutional, while many homeschoolers are wary of the strings that may become attached to the funding.
The bill is misnamed, as it is not a credit but a return of monies already taken from us via property and income taxes. As usual, the state will take your money first, then decide if you are worthy to get some back.
There are only two lawful taxes allowed under the US Constitution, excise and apportioned. Excise means you pay if you use the services or products that are taxed, and apportioned means everyone pays the same amount. Neither income nor property taxes fit into these categories, and both are used to fund our schools.
This is resulting in a fight between the public education system and the state vs those who have property or those who don’t use the public education system in this state (Idaho).
The original education system proposed by Thomas Jefferson in Virginia was to give free education for the first 3 years to help those who couldn’t afford private resources to get the minimum needed to learn on their own (Readin, Writin, and Rithmatic), and there were no special services for the handicapped. Subsequent 3-year chunks of education were only offered to the top 10% of students graduating from the previous chunk. China has adopted this type of system, and it has benefited them greatly.
Our educational system is collapsing under the bureaucratic mess and inefficient government interference that has produced an illegal monopoly on education that is not only hurting our kids but is breaking the financial backs of people who never used the system, yet continue to pay taxes that may well rob them of their property.
The well-meaning tax credit was a hard-fought-for bill that can’t fix the fundamental unfairness of the taxes we are under. Let’s return to allodial property rights and true constitutional apportioned and excise taxes only.
Sandy (Sanford) Staab
Kooskia