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2005 Ron Paul Chapter 14
Not linked on Ron Paul’s Congressional website.
Congressional Record [.PDF]
Introduction Of The Education Improvement Tax Cut Act
26 January 2005
HON. RON PAUL
OF TEXAS
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Wednesday, January 26, 2005
2005 Ron Paul 14:1
Mr. PAUL. Mr. 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 $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.
2005 Ron Paul 14:2
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 either
expand federal control over education or
engage in the pseudo-federalism of block
grants. 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.
2005 Ron Paul 14:3
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.
2005 Ron Paul 14:4
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.
2005 Ron Paul 14:5
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.
2005 Ron Paul 14:6
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.
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