Not linked on Ron Paul’s Congressional Website.
HON. RON PAUL
OF TEXAS
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Thursday, April 2, 2009
2009 Ron Paul 48:1
Mr. PAUL. Madam Speaker, I rise to introduce
the Education Improvement Tax Cut Act.
This act, a companion to my Family Education
Freedom Act, takes a further step toward returning
control over education resources to private
citizens by providing a $5,000 tax credit
for donations to scholarship funds to enable
low-income children to attend private schools.
It also encourages private citizens to devote
more of their resources to helping public
schools, by providing a $5,000 tax credit for
cash or in-kind donations to public schools to
support academic or extra curricular programs.
2009 Ron Paul 48:2
I need not remind my colleagues that education
is one of the top priorities of the American
people. After all, many members of Congress
have proposed education reforms and a
great deal of time is spent debating these proposals.
However, most of these proposals expand
federal control over education. Many
proposals that claim to increase local control
over education actually extend federal power
by holding schools “accountable” to federal
bureaucrats and politicians. Of course, schools
should be held accountable for their results,
but they should be held accountable to parents
and school boards not to federal officials.
Therefore, I propose we move in a different direction
and embrace true federalism by returning
control over the education dollar to the
American people.
2009 Ron Paul 48:3
One of the major problems with centralized
control over education funding is that spending
priorities set by Washington-based Representatives,
staffers, and bureaucrats do not necessarily
match the needs of individual communities.
In fact, it would be a miracle if spending
priorities determined by the wishes of certain
politically powerful representatives or the theories
of Education Department functionaries
match the priorities of every community in a
country as large and diverse as America.
Block grants do not solve this problem as they
simply allow states and localities to choose
the means to reach federally-determined ends.
2009 Ron Paul 48:4
Returning control over the education dollar
for tax credits for parents and for other concerned
citizens returns control over both the
means and ends of education policy to local
communities. People in one community may
use this credit to purchase computers, while
children in another community may, at last,
have access to a quality music program because
of community leaders who took advantage
of the tax credit contained in this bill.
2009 Ron Paul 48:5
Children in some communities may benefit
most from the opportunity to attend private,
parochial, or other religious schools. One of
the most encouraging trends in education has
been the establishment of private scholarship
programs. These scholarship funds use voluntary
contributions to open the doors of quality
private schools to low-income children. By
providing a tax credit for donations to these
programs, Congress can widen the educational
opportunities and increase the quality
of education for all children. Furthermore, privately-
funded scholarships raise none of the
concerns of state entanglement raised by publicly-
funded vouchers.
2009 Ron Paul 48:6
There is no doubt that Americans will always
spend generously on education, the
question is, “who should control the education
dollar – politicians and bureaucrats or the
American people?” Mr. Speaker, I urge my
colleagues to join me in placing control of education
back in the hands of citizens and local
communities by sponsoring the Education Improvement
Tax Cut Act.
