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From: seifert@ihuxl.UUCP (D.A. Seifert)
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Re: Private school tax deduction vs NEA
Message-ID: <744@ihuxl.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 15-Nov-83 10:27:14 EST
Article-I.D.: ihuxl.744
Posted: Tue Nov 15 10:27:14 1983
Date-Received: Wed, 16-Nov-83 02:01:44 EST
References: <433@ihuxb.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Naperville, Il
Lines: 49

> Obviously, one of the reasons could be that if the deductions were
> allowed, more people would be enrolling their children in private
> schools, and the declining public school would mean the loss of jobs
> for many instructors. 
> Perhaps the reason is that taxpayers who send their children to 
> public school do not receive tax breaks.   It would seem to be that
> these parents ARE receiving an indirect tax break because of the
> subsidy provided by the taxpaying parents of children in private
> schools.
> 
> Mike Clifford
> ihuxb!mcal

I think that if more people enrolled their kids in private schools
there would be *more* jobs for teachers, not less.  Private schools
tend to have a lower ratio of students to teachers than public
schools.  Assuming a constant number of students, this requires
more teachers. In turn, this requires more money, assuming salaries
are constant.

What *will* happen, is that jobs will disappear from the public
school system and reappear in the private school system. Teachers
transfering between systems would probably lose their beloved
tenure.  It may be difficult for the less competant teachers
to find jobs in the private systems.  Private schools tend to
have higher standards, they expect teachers to actually
*teach* something, not just play babysitter.

Private schools are currently expensive, partly because
quality education costs more, and partly because you're also
paying taxes for the public school which you are not using.
Education is *not* free, even if we try to hide it in
property taxes.  People should have the responsibility of
paying for their children's education, and should have a choice
of schools.

I have attended both public and private schools.  The difference
in quality was at least an order of magnitude.  I'm sure there
are counterexamples, so please no flames about how great public
school "foo" is, or how bad private school "bar".

)
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|OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO|		Dave Seifert
|OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO|		ihnp4!ihuxl!seifert
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