{"id":7879,"date":"2017-12-20T23:27:49","date_gmt":"2017-12-21T05:27:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/?p=7879"},"modified":"2017-12-21T11:39:14","modified_gmt":"2017-12-21T17:39:14","slug":"lets-not-demonize-private-schools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2017\/12\/lets-not-demonize-private-schools.html","title":{"rendered":"Let’s not demonize private schools"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"LB.<\/p>\n

So in my twitter feed today was a New York Times editorial lamenting the benefit provided to private school families,\u00a0\u201cHow the Republican Tax Plan Uses School Savings to Hurt States<\/a>.\u201d\u00a0 The claim:\u00a0 the new tax bill allows families to use 529 plan savings on not just university tuition, but tuition at the elementary and secondary level as well, or for homeschool supplies.\u00a0 With respect to federal taxes, it\u2019s not a big deal:\u00a0 the benefit to families consists of, Roth IRA-like, not having taxes due on the investment income.\u00a0 Few families would save much in the first few years of a child\u2019s life, to have investment income by the time they reach elementary school age.\u00a0 33 states, however, allow the entire contribution to be tax-deductible; a family in one of these states could pay for their private school tuition with before-tax income, saving, at least, on state taxes.\u00a0 This, the author says, is a terrible thing, because the forgone tax revenue will hurt public schools.<\/p>\n

Could those states simply change their own laws, so that only amounts withdrawn for university or trade school tuition are tax-free, and withdrawals for other purposes are only tax-deferred?\u00a0 I\u2019m not a tax expert.\u00a0 But even if it\u2019s not possible, it seems to me that the hand-wringing about private schools is coming from a warped, upper-class perspective.<\/p>\n

It seems to me that these folks are thinking of exclusive private schools \u2014 e.g., the Sidwell Friends of their neighborhood \u2014 where parents pay $30,000 in tuition or more, for luxurious campuses, riding lessons, extra-small class sizes, teachers with Ph.D.s, organic lunches, and so on.<\/p>\n

But, here in flyover country, \u201cprivate schools\u201d primarily mean parochial schools.\u00a0 In fact, according to the Council for American Private Education<\/a>, citing a report, \u201cCharacteristics of Private Schools<\/a>\u00a0in the United States: Results From the 2013\u201314 Private School Universe Survey<\/a>,\u201d produced by the Department of Education, nearly 80% of all private schools are\u00a0religious schools.\u00a0 To be sure, strictly speaking, Sidwell Friends is nominally a \u201creligious school\u201d \u2014 sponsored by the Quakers \u2014 as is that nominally Catholic school in Marin County, California, that made the news<\/a> for discarding their religious statues so as to not upset non-Catholics, but the bulk of these schools are schools that working parents seek out to provide their children with an education that includes their religious values or, in the case of poor neighborhoods, provides an education they have more confidence in than local public schools.<\/p>\n

These are parents that sacrifice to afford tuition, and take on the expectation to volunteer in all manner of ways that, at a public school, would be unnecessary (fundraising) or handled by professionals (the library helpers, the pizza day helpers, and so on).\u00a0 In better-off neighborhoods, they forgo the luxuries of their local public schools \u2014 everything from extensive technology spending to more extracurricular opportunities, to special programs like dual language learning.\u00a0 In poorer neighborhoods, as much as those parents are castigated for not properly balancing out the underachieving public school kids, with their own higher-achieving children, they benefit the neighborhood in general \u2014 without a parochial school option, those same neighborhoods (especially in areas without charter or magnet school options) would lose those middle-class families entirely.<\/p>\n

And these parents save their school districts an incredible sum of money<\/strong>, by the fact that they pay property taxes just like everyone else, but their children don\u2019t take up space in the public schools.\u00a0 The New York Times article reported that there are 465,000 private school students in New York, and that the potential tax deduction would lead to a loss of $3 billion in tax base (or maybe $200 million in actual lost tax collection, depending on the income level of those taxpayers, given the progressive tax rates of the state).\u00a0 That\u2019s an implied $6,500 per student, if the author\u2019s numbers are correct \u2014 far less than the more than $20,000<\/a> the state spends per student on public school students.\u00a0 Even giving that tuition a state tax deduction, it\u2019s still a win for the state.<\/p>\n

All the whining about how parents have an obligation to send their kids to public schools and volunteer there?\u00a0 It\u2019s irrelevant in suburban schools where they don\u2019t need the help, and, in cities, it\u2019s unfair to ask a parent to send their kid to a struggling school, so as to (theoretically) benefit the student body in general, at the expense of their own child\u2019s education.\u00a0 Besides which, don\u2019t get me started on the fact that the complainers are themselves likely to live in upscale neighborhoods where the local public schools are so upscale that they rival private schools in their spending and amenities.<\/p>\n

So I\u2019ve really had it with complaints that public school families are, as a group, acting selfishly and against the common good.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Image:\u00a0\u00a0LB. Visit to Holy Redeemer Catholic School. https:\/\/georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov\/news\/releases\/2008\/01\/images\/20080130_p013008sc-0066-515h.html<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So in my twitter feed today was a New York Times editorial lamenting the benefit provided to private school families,\u00a0\u201cHow the Republican Tax Plan Uses School Savings to Hurt States.\u201d\u00a0 The claim:\u00a0 the new tax bill allows families to use 529 plan savings on not just university tuition, but tuition at the elementary and secondary […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":7880,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[232,807,38],"class_list":["post-7879","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-catholic-schools","tag-private-schools","tag-tax-reform"],"yoast_head":"\nLet's not demonize private schools<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"So in my twitter feed today was a New York Times editorial lamenting the benefit provided to private school families,\u00a0"How the Republican Tax Plan Uses\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2017\/12\/lets-not-demonize-private-schools.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Let's not demonize private schools\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"So in my twitter feed today was a New York Times editorial lamenting the benefit provided to private school families,\u00a0"How the Republican Tax Plan Uses\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2017\/12\/lets-not-demonize-private-schools.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jane the Actuary\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-12-21T05:27:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-12-21T17:39:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/533\/2017\/12\/catholic-school.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"514\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"317\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jane the Actuary\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jane the Actuary\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2017\/12\/lets-not-demonize-private-schools.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2017\/12\/lets-not-demonize-private-schools.html\",\"name\":\"Let's not demonize private schools\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2017-12-21T05:27:49+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-12-21T17:39:14+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/ed9b99e0bd58c5eeeebae6b82fa5a77a\"},\"description\":\"So in my twitter feed today was a New York Times editorial lamenting the benefit provided to private school families,\u00a0\\\"How the Republican Tax Plan Uses\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2017\/12\/lets-not-demonize-private-schools.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2017\/12\/lets-not-demonize-private-schools.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2017\/12\/lets-not-demonize-private-schools.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Let’s not demonize private schools\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/\",\"name\":\"Jane the Actuary\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/ed9b99e0bd58c5eeeebae6b82fa5a77a\",\"name\":\"Jane the Actuary\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8d6a493d380e87d49599d5487691c9fc?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8d6a493d380e87d49599d5487691c9fc?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Jane the Actuary\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/author\/actuaryjane\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Let's not demonize private schools","description":"So in my twitter feed today was a New York Times editorial lamenting the benefit provided to private school families,\u00a0\"How the Republican Tax Plan Uses","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2017\/12\/lets-not-demonize-private-schools.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Let's not demonize private schools","og_description":"So in my twitter feed today was a New York Times editorial lamenting the benefit provided to private school families,\u00a0\"How the Republican Tax Plan Uses","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2017\/12\/lets-not-demonize-private-schools.html","og_site_name":"Jane the Actuary","article_published_time":"2017-12-21T05:27:49+00:00","article_modified_time":"2017-12-21T17:39:14+00:00","og_image":[{"width":514,"height":317,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/533\/2017\/12\/catholic-school.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Jane the Actuary","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jane the Actuary","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2017\/12\/lets-not-demonize-private-schools.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2017\/12\/lets-not-demonize-private-schools.html","name":"Let's not demonize private schools","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#website"},"datePublished":"2017-12-21T05:27:49+00:00","dateModified":"2017-12-21T17:39:14+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/ed9b99e0bd58c5eeeebae6b82fa5a77a"},"description":"So in my twitter feed today was a New York Times editorial lamenting the benefit provided to private school families,\u00a0\"How the Republican Tax Plan Uses","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2017\/12\/lets-not-demonize-private-schools.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2017\/12\/lets-not-demonize-private-schools.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2017\/12\/lets-not-demonize-private-schools.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Let’s not demonize private schools"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/","name":"Jane the Actuary","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/ed9b99e0bd58c5eeeebae6b82fa5a77a","name":"Jane the Actuary","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8d6a493d380e87d49599d5487691c9fc?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8d6a493d380e87d49599d5487691c9fc?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Jane the Actuary"},"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/author\/actuaryjane"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7879","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2209"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7879"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7879\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7880"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}