shanek said:
That is a much greater percentage than the percent of children who could be considered to be in any kind of real poverty.
"Child Credits" are bupkis. They don't even begin to cover what they've put into the system...and they're given this regardless of whether or not they put their children into private school or home-school them, or send them to public school.
You keep providing statistics, but you don't really show any understanding of them.
You do realize that children other than poverty stricken ones recieve financial aid to go to private schools, don't you? At the present levels of giving and application, even if taxes were eliminated tomorrow, only 44% of US students would be given of an education through the private system. Your imaginary world requires changes in distribution of schools, tuitions, and spending of aid in lower education, none of which we have any assurances would happen. Again, it looks like it is faith in the market, not examination of trends in the real world that fuels your belief that every child, or even a majority, would receive an education in the libertarian world.
Child Credits are already subsidies just for the fact that people had children; they arent' intended to reimburse parents for all their expenses, just to offset them. Not everyone gets out of goverment what they put in through taxes, nor should anyone expect to as one's needs and ability to pay will fluctuate through the life-cycle. When people take it upon themselves to reject subsidized public schooling for whatever reason, it doesn't necessarily mean it was a better choice. Private schools can offer whatever they want as education when they don't recieve public monies, and the public has no assurance that they are receiving a quality education, so why should they give an additional subsidy? Since 80% of private schools in the US are religious, there is reason to suspect the children are being exposed to logic and the scientific method being unequally applied, if not instructed to specifically in some classes. Also, you have given no sources showing private schools produce better results even when matched according to income level, parents' education, etc- all the factors that influence a child's outcome.
Really, the burden is on parents to prove that sending little Bobby to Sadr's Freedom-fighter Academy or to the Victory Church of God's Immaculate Love in Jesus Fellowship school actually provides an equivalent education before they expect the public to subsidize it.
Actually, it looks like you don't understand the statistics I'm presenting when you get caught up with certain details and fail to follow the point I'm making. My point about poverty level students was that they would rely entirely on aid. That doesn't mean they are the only students who would need aid.
