Issue 657 Don't Tax Schools! August 17, 2015

So Public schools, charter schools and certain religious schools are not taxed at all for obvious reasons.  But what about private schools?  Why are they taxed which creates an uneven playing field?  Let us answer this question.

Why some schools are taxed and others are not:  Well, let us start with the non-taxed group.  Religious nonprofit schools are obvious due to them being associated with a Church or other religious institution.  Public is also obvious because they are a government institution.  Charters are not taxed because they are a version of public schools that are run differently and as such are funded by the government.  That leaves private schools.  There are private schools that are not taxed, but that is only when they become a non-profit.  As such, both for profit private and religious schools are taxed like any regular business.  But this is education we are talking about.  This practice means that nonprofits and government funded schools have an advantage over the for profit schools.  So, this unfair competition leads to private schools being forced to charge more for their services just so they can stay in business.  Unfair advantages issued by government are bad in a capitalist society for it inherently creates winners and losers artificially.  This also means good schools shut down, or less students being able to afford to go due to the schools having to charge more so they can pay their taxes.  This unequal treatment needs to end.

Conclusion:  Education is just that, education. It does not matter where it comes from, or who teaches it so long as the quality is good.  Can you imagine how many more schools could open or how affordable they would be if more for profits were not taxed like most other schools?  The idea of making money off of educating kids is not a bad thing as we do that when people in localities pay taxes directly to the schools (which is fishy unto itself).  So it should not matter if something is for profit or not, for what really matters is that the kids get the best education possible.