Suppose we ask a very basic question:
Under what conditions should we give tax money to, or spend tax money on, people who can afford to get along without it?
We don’t give LIHEAP subsidies to people who can already afford to heat their homes. We don’t give Section 8 subsidies to people who can already afford to own or rent their homes. We don’t give EBT cards to people who can already afford to feed their families. And so on.
So the proper answer seems to be: Under no conditions.
And there is a good reason for this. It’s hard to think of something more evil than taking money from people who are worse off, to hand it over to people who are better off.
Why, then, would we give education subsidies, in the form of EFAs, to parents who can afford to educate their own children?
We shouldn’t. It’s that simple.
But while we’re considering that initial question, we should go a step further, applying the answer not just to EFAs, but to public schools as well.
That is, if a parent can afford to pay some or all of the per-student cost of sending his child to a public school, why would we let him do that at the expense of other people, many of whom are worse off than him?
(To make that a little more concrete, there is a family in my town that owns several properties. They could sell one or two of them to cover the cost of educating their own children. But they don’t have to, which allows them to use the money they don’t have to spend each year to buy more property, go on luxury vacations, and so on. At the same time, there is a person in my town whose daughter has to take out personal loans to help him pay his school taxes, so he won’t lose his house. As Feynman used to say, this is a hell of a way to run a railroad.)
Ideally, there are two results, not just one, that should come out of the current debate over universal funding of EFAs:
The first is that means testing for EFAs should be retained, just as it would be for any other kind of welfare.
The second is that means testing for public schools should be instituted, just as it would be for any other kind of welfare.
Ruth Ward et Rick Ladd removenda est
Editor: Check back later today for an Interview with Ian and Jody Underwood on Education and (yes) EFAs.
