The Republican tax plan is also a plan to devastate public education
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The Republican tax plan would devastate American public education. It wouldn’t just hurt education by ending a small tax deduction for teachers who spend their own money on classroom supplies, or ending the student loan interest deduction. No, beyond all thThe Republican tax plan is also a plan to devastate public education
The Republican tax plan would devastate American public education. It wouldn’t just hurt education by ending a small tax deduction for teachers who spend their own money on classroom supplies, or ending the student loan interest deduction. No, beyond all that, the state and local tax deduction would have a huge impact on education, Michael Dannenberg explains: Think about someone in the 28 percent tax bracket that pays $20,000 in state income andlocal property taxes each year. About half of that money goes to public schools either as a percentage of subsequent state budget outlays or passed through directly to schools from local governments and local school tax authorities. Ok. Consider the portion for public education, the $10,000 half. When an individual in the 28 percent marginal tax bracket itemizes and deducts $10,000 worth of state income and local property taxes for schools, he or she reduces his or her federal tax bill by $2,800 ($10,000 * .28 = $2,800). Thus of the $10,000 that goes to pay for public education, the individual pays $7,200 and the federal government pays $2,800. In other words, the federal deduction makes using state and local taxes to fund education and other public goods or services more attractive, because it makes state and local taxes a cheaper source of revenue for regular people than they otherwise would be. Eliminating the state and local tax deduction (SALT) would devastate the ability of state and local governments to raise funds for local schools. It would make current state and local taxes more expensive for regular taxpayers inevitably leading the conservative American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and others later to call for reductions in state taxes to make up for the federal ‘tax increase’ — thus further starving public education. In other words, eliminating or significantly curbing SALT is the beginning of a cycle of disinvestment from public education. According to the National Education Association: [SALT’s] elimination could blow a hole in state and local revenue to support public education to the tune of $370 billion over ten years, potentially putting at risk funding for 370,000 education jobs according to a detailed analysis of the impact of the Senate bill on funding for public education conducted by the National Education Association. And this comes at a time when “nearly two-thirds of states have never recovered from the Great Recession and are still providing less support for elementary and secondary school students than they did in 2008.” Devastating is the word. Check out this Center for American Progress Twitter thread for more ways the Republican tax plan would harm public education. Read more