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Do Homeschoolers Deserve a Tax Break?


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New York Times debate, started yesterday:

 

http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2011/01/04/do-home-schoolers-deserve-a-tax-break/yes-to-a-tax-credit-but-tests-are-necessary

 

Wondering what actual homeschoolers feel about this? Most of the commenters on these articles are decidedly not homeschool advocates. In fact, some are spewing the most ridiculous fallacies about homeschooling- that we all teach our children the world is flat and that homeschooling is merely a thin veil for truancy. :glare:

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I have no words. :glare: While a tax break would be nice, I don't think "deserve" is the right word at all. And testing sounds reasonable, but based on whose standards? What about children with special needs? What about children who get "off" during the "fill in the bubble" test and look like a punctuation moron? (Uhhh, no, that didn't happen here....:tongue_smilie:)

 

I am not opposed to evaluations but only used purely for reference. I am opposed to high stakes testing in education. So I am hs'ing 5 children. One gets a less than stellar test result, does that child have to go to a brick and mortar? What about the rest? Are they forced out of hs'ing? What about when the child with the less than stellar result does even worse in a brick and mortar? Will I be "allowed" to bring that child back home? Too sticky by far for my taste.

 

If they wanted to give a tax break to any American who provides academic extras to their dc (tutors, music lessons, learning camps, educational memberships, etc.) I am not opposed. So anyone who wants to add to their dc's education in a tangible way that comes with a receipt could save said receipt and write it off, fine. Beyond that, I don't think so.

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In a way I think the pertinent question (especially for those of us whose children do not have to undergo any testing whatsoever to homeschool) is whether I would trade lack of testing for the tax credit.

 

For me, the answer to that question is no.

 

Maybe it amounts to the same thing and I'm not an expert on tax law at all, but I think if I was writing the laws, I would rather let us deduct up to a certain amount of our materials costs anyway. But that would also bring more regulation, so... still a no.

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The first answer that came to mind is YES! However, that was prior to reading the article.

 

Once they mention "testing" will be required, I balk. That is a slippery slope of legislation that could hurt our rights to homeschool immensely, and that is something that I definitely don't want. I'd rather dish out my money without tax benefits vs. lose my right to homeschool my children according to their needs.

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I vote no because there are always strings. Plus, people without kids don't get a tax break for not utilizing the public school. I like Kathleen's idea of funneling tax dollars to the public library. I would love to see educational lending libraries with microscopes and other items that we don't use daily, but need now and again.

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No. I do, however, believe that all homeschoolers should have the option of enrolling their children in a virtual charter that provides a stipend for curriculum and classes of the parents' choice. Those families who want the money and can live with the strings attached can go that route. Those who want to homeschool privately should not be subject to any governmental regulation beyond what is required of traditional private schools. So if B&M private schools are not required to administer standardized tests to their students, then neither should private homeschools.

 

This is the way California does it, and I think it should be the same in all states.

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There are always strings attached to any concession. I think any taxes paid by homeschoolers that usually go to the public schools should be diverted to the public library instead.

 

I agree here!

 

I'd be interested in seeing how this plays out in my state. We already have mandated testing-which is why, legally, my DD isn't homeschooled but enrolled in a private school-that just happens to have a satellite campus that matches our home address and has DH and I on faculty ;).

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There are always strings attached to any concession. I think any taxes paid by homeschoolers that usually go to the public schools should be diverted to the public library instead.

 

:iagree: This is an excellent idea! Maybe then they would keep quality literature instead of fluff. :D

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I would like all parents to be sent a check, or offered a refund...I think that "per child" they should give.... 30% to administration, 25% to a general "school fund" for the district and then 45% to a school of your choice... or maybe 30% if they are "homeschooled". No strings attached. That'd turn out to be maybe $4500 if you did private... and $3000 if you hs. For a few people, they wouldn't do what's right... but I think most would. ALSO, it would make the Public School more accountable to the parents... as the parents would remember that THEY (and we) are actually contributing the tax money for their students to be there...

 

:)

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OH I missed this and posted a link to the article in another thread. :001_huh:

 

I have been mulling over the 3 article in the series by the HSDLA lawyer. His ideal legislation would be to give EVERYONE a tax break, say up to $500 for educational expenses. ALl you would need to do is provide receipts. Hey, even seniors w/ no kids in school could claim educational expenses they pay for their grandkids! So you could send your DC to Kumon afterschool and claim that. You could send your child to school on Saturdays to learn Chinese and claim that. You could buy your DC extra workbooks to cement those math facts they don't teach in school or you could buy DC grammar books since they don't teach that in school and claim it on your taxes. The same would go for HSers but we wouldn't be singled out for possible/probably increased legislation.

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My, I did not know ya'all didn't already get a tax break from your state. We Illinoisians are lucky in that respect, at least (and no testing, either.)

 

Of course, Illinois still ranks bottom of the heap for services for folks with disabilities. So I can get a bit of a tax break when I homeschool, but zilch help for SillyAutismMan in terms of job/social/independant living, etc.

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Short answer is no. I dont want the tax breaks, but its mostly because I also dont want the government butting into my homeschooling and any government tax breaks will give them the "right" to make sure I am homeschooling the way they think I should be.

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Short answer is no. I dont want the tax breaks, but its mostly because I also dont want the government butting into my homeschooling and any government tax breaks will give them the "right" to make sure I am homeschooling the way they think I should be.

:iagree:

 

Plus I don't see the need. People are always looking to get as much as they can out of every situation. We don't have a "right" to a tax break any more than the next guy.

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No, I do not think homeschoolers deserve a tax break. School taxes is one of the costs of being part of a community. Homeschooling is a choice. If I choose to send my kids to private school I don't get a tax break because it is a choice.

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There are many parents who CANNOT homeschool. In our very poor county, that would mean taking funds away from schools which are trying hard--and struggling with a lack of funds--to do what the parents can't. I think I have a civic responsibility to contribute to the education of children who have no other option.

 

My $.02,

 

SWB

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I say "no" for many reasons including the strings that would be attached, the impact on the community, the years I paid taxes of PS when I had no children, and so on.

 

Could you imagine what would happen to our public schools if the tax money they rely on was diverted elsewhere? Most PS systems are in bad shape as it is due to the recession, cuts in funding, etc. Taking away even more funding would be disastrous. Even though I don't use the system anymore, I can't imagine the impact on our society if we were to hamstring it even further.

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I vote no because there are always strings. Plus, people without kids don't get a tax break for not utilizing the public school. I like Kathleen's idea of funneling tax dollars to the public library. I would love to see educational lending libraries with microscopes and other items that we don't use daily, but need now and again.

 

I agree with this; there's likely to be a hook in the bait. Freedom is far more important to me than the money. There are ways to homeschool effectively on a tight budget. Also, ps students are going to be living and working alongside our children someday and they need a good education too. Now that I'm finished homeschooling, I plan to re-involve myself in trying to improve public education in my school district. Far too many tax dollars in NM never make it into the classrooms even though education is the biggest part of our state's budget.

Edited by Martha in NM
clarity
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I don't want a tax break. I wish funds for public schools were used differently, but I don't mind supporting them. I live in a state where we do not even have to register as homeschoolers. I like that I can do this and neither govt has a thing to do with it - not even for a tax break. Actually there is a tax break available for us in this state - and I choose not to file for it. To me, it's not worth the scrutiny it might bring.

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My comment hasn't been posted yet, but that was one point I made. One commenter noted that things started going downhill when "citizens" became "taxpayers" and I heartily agree. That's not to say I support everything the public schools do-hardly-but I cannot see how a tax break, a federal one at that, can do anything but hurt us in the long run.

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I have a better plan: How about if people are unable or unwilling to educate their own children, whether by paying for school or homeschooling, they can apply for financial aid for school?

 

The argument I always hear about why we should fund public school is because otherwise those children whose parents won't do it will be uneducated. It'll be like food stamps, but for education.

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There are many parents who CANNOT homeschool. In our very poor county, that would mean taking funds away from schools which are trying hard--and struggling with a lack of funds--to do what the parents can't. I think I have a civic responsibility to contribute to the education of children who have no other option.

 

I agree when is comes to state/county/city funds. However, I am curious what you think a about federal funds. For example, a fairly large portion of Hawaii is made up of military families. Hawaii has some of the worst schools in the country. Schools receive federal funds for each military child to help make up for the fact that military people don't always pay state taxes. In Hawaii we have an excise tax on everything and that is what funds the schools, so that doesn't apply, but they still get the federal funding.

 

At least half of the people we know have their kids in private school or homeschool (even those who never did so before) as a result of the terrible schools.

 

The states can distribute the federal funding how they wish. The whole state of Hawaii is one school district and they distribute the money equally throughout all of the schools in the state, even to islands with no military on them. It would be a great benefit to military kids to use that federal funding to some other purpose-sports teams for private schools/homeshoolers, lending library, something.

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I have a better plan: How about if people are unable or unwilling to educate their own children, whether by paying for school or homeschooling, they can apply for financial aid for school?

 

The argument I always hear about why we should fund public school is because otherwise those children whose parents won't do it will be uneducated. It'll be like food stamps, but for education.

 

This sounds like vouchers. (FWIW, I have nothing against vouchers for poverty-level families, but to make a long story short, a larger voucher program would create too many market distortions. My district is currently considering a larger voucher program, without regard to income, though I highly doubt they'll actually do it.)

 

As for tax breaks for homeschoolers, that doesn't make sense under the current funding regime for public school, which in our area is primarily out of property taxes, whether or not the taxpayer has a student attending public school. The same would apply to federal funds. And, there's also the issue of private school tuition. Now, if the entire system were changed, I might think differently, but at the moment, no.

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I say "no" for many reasons including the strings that would be attached, the impact on the community, the years I paid taxes of PS when I had no children, and so on.

 

Could you imagine what would happen to our public schools if the tax money they rely on was diverted elsewhere? Most PS systems are in bad shape as it is due to the recession, cuts in funding, etc. Taking away even more funding would be disastrous. Even though I don't use the system anymore, I can't imagine the impact on our society if we were to hamstring it even further.

 

Aren't we talking Federal taxes? How is offering a Federal tax break to HS families going to have any impact on local school funding? :confused::confused::confused:

 

I don't agree with having a Federal tax break for HSing but it has nothing to do with a perceived negative impact on the funding for the government-run schools.

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I wouldn't take it if they offered, no way no how. I already have too much oversight by the state, the Fed can keep it's nose out of my school. And I am glad to pay my school taxes. Everyone pays it, not just those with school aged kids, so if my elderly neighbor on a fixed income and with no children in school pays it, why in the world should I get out of it? The real question to my mind is why/whether anyone should pay it at all, at least on a Federal level.

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I vote no because there are always strings. Plus, people without kids don't get a tax break for not utilizing the public school. I like Kathleen's idea of funneling tax dollars to the public library. I would love to see educational lending libraries with microscopes and other items that we don't use daily, but need now and again.

:iagree:

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There are many parents who CANNOT homeschool. In our very poor county, that would mean taking funds away from schools which are trying hard--and struggling with a lack of funds--to do what the parents can't. I think I have a civic responsibility to contribute to the education of children who have no other option.

 

My $.02,

 

SWB

Agreed.

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It would be nice to get a tax break, but no, I don't want the government affixing the chains to my ankles while I hold out my hand for a benefit.

 

As soon as you take government money, government wants to direct the teaching. No thanks. That's what I was escaping to begin with.

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It would be nice to get a tax break, but no, I don't want the government affixing the chains to my ankles while I hold out my hand for a benefit.

 

As soon as you take government money, government wants to direct the teaching. No thanks. That's what I was escaping to begin with.

 

Not to quibble here, but it's not the government's money in the first place. It is the taxpayers' money. If you pay taxes and then get a tax break of any kind, it's YOUR money that you get to keep.:001_smile:

 

 

FWIW, we pay an incredible amount of school taxes to an *Exemplary* (as defined by the state) district. Which means the school teaches to the test and only to the test.

 

At our last home, we paid an incredible amount of school taxes to a district in which every high school student failed the state math test.:lol:

 

I don't mind paying some school taxes, but when I read the state spends $X/per student and I spend much less per student, I'd love to have some of our money back in our pocket to spend on resources we need.

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Since we're lightening a system that in many cases seems to be overwhelmed, and buying all our own materials, I do think that we deserve a tax credit.

 

ETA: Results based accountability? That's preposterous..... Our math and science scores, all our scores, are consistenly falling across the country every year. Test scores are meaningless and if hser's take tests and do better than other kids, the jealous will come out of the woodwork to try to change things so that those statistics don't show up any more.....

Edited by mcconnellboys
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I absolutely do not want any more involvement from the government that we already have to deal with :)

Tax credits would give them an excuse to regulate more, choose the only "good" curriculums we could use for those credits, etc, etc.

 

In my humble opinion, anything the government gets its hands in to always goes downhill.

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