A better solution for Columbia's tax credit woes

The Columbia Daily Tribune today has a letter from Frank Martin offering just the kind of smart, creative solutions we like to see. Columbia Public Schools made a blunder with the budget reserves, and instead of using that reserve to make a one-time purchase, such as Chemistry textbooks that some parents claim their kids don’t have, they used it to create new positions that are a repeating cost—and they’re asking Columbia residents to replace that money each year through a levy. Their argument is that students won’t be educated well if they don’t get this levy.

It’s a bit of a hostage situation. CPS misappropriates the reserve fund, and says: If you don’t pay for our mistake, your kids won’t learn.

That’s quite a stranglehold—despite whether taxpayers believe CPS should get the 54 cent tax levy, they are obligated to do it at the cost of their child’s education. And when you give a mouse a cookie, he’s going to want some milk. Frank Martin’s solution cuts the ties of that stranglehold:

Editor, the Tribune: As voters consider whether to raise their property taxes 54 cents per hundred dollars of assessed property value, I urge them to consider a different approach.

Instead of taxpayers being forced to pay their school taxes to one school system - the public school system - they should have the option of choosing which educational opportunity they want their school tax to support: public school, private school or home school. Just as Pell Grants at the college level are not tied to just public universities and colleges, neither should educational tax dollars at the K-12 level.

Under current law, the K-12 public schools do not have to compete for public tax dollars; they operate a monopoly. They receive 100 percent of all school property tax dollars every year regardless of the product they produce. Even if the dropout rates are high, or some who graduate are ill-equipped to move forward in their adult lives, the public school still gets 100 percent of the tax dollars taken from you for the purpose of preparing young people for success in life.

I urge voters to reject this 54-cent tax levy that only increases the power of this outdated public school monopoly. Parents should be provided the option of choosing the education structure they believe will best prepare their child to meet the challenge of adult life.

Yes, this would create real competition for the current public school monopoly. This competition would do what competition instead of monopoly always does: create a better product at a lower cost.