HON. RON PAUL
OF TEXAS
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Tuesday, March 2, 1999
1999 Ron Paul 10:1 Mr. PAUL.
Mr. Speaker, I rise to introduce
the Education Improvement Tax Cut Act of
1999. 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
$3,000 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 $3,000
tax credit for cash or in-kind donations to public
schools to support academic or extra curricular
programs.
1999 Ron Paul 10:2 I need not remind my colleagues that education
is one of, if not the top priority of the
American people. After all, many members of
Congress have proposed education reforms
and a great deal of their time is spent debating
these proposals. However, most of these
proposals either expand federal control over
education or engage in the pseudo-federalism
of block grants. I propose we go in a different
direction by embracing true federalism by returning
control over the education dollar to the
American people.
1999 Ron Paul 10:3 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.
1999 Ron Paul 10:4 Returning control over the education dollar
for tax credits for parents and for other concerned
citizens returns control over the 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.
1999 Ron Paul 10:5 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.
1999 Ron Paul 10:6 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 of 1999.
Notes:
1999 Ron Paul 10:3
federally-determined probably should not be hyphenated: federally determined.
1999 Ron Paul 10:5
publicly-funded probably should not be hyphenated: publicly funded.
