Wednesday, February 09, 2005

HB197 Is Wrong-Headed

It is instructive that some supporters of HB197 (requires registration) view children as no better than animals, rather than seeing them as the future of our state and economy. Supporters of this bill claim that all they want is for families with more children to pay their “fair share” for education.

Of course, our society, like all well-run societies, is not based on paying a fair share. Instead we all shoulder the burdens together, sometimes paying more and sometimes receiving more than our fair share. We do this with the understanding that a greater overall benefit is achieved for everyone.

If we all paid our fair share for public education it would become a private education system.

Applying the logic of HB197 to other government programs would have us increasing taxes on people that receive more than some arbitrarily set amount of benefit from any program.

Representative Steve Urquhart (R-St. George) published a well-written letter from one of his constituents on his website (see Jones-Mascaro II) that does a better job than I have done at addressing this issue. I think it succinctly makes the point that HB197 is a wrong-headed approach to education funding.

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