If you don’t have kids you still have to pay the taxes that support public schools, just like everyone else. But Republicans in the state legislature are putting weight behind an educational measure that would change that. A proposed bill would allow parents who send their kids to private school or home-school to get some of their tax money back.
That money wouldn’t go straight into parents’ pockets, but into a savings account that could only be accessed for educational spending.
It’s money that Melissa Raber, a parent who homeschools all 9 of her children, says she could really put to good use.
“My house is really like an elementary school, a middle school and a high school all at once,” said Raber.
Before she had kids, Raber was a public school teacher. But each passing year, she felt more restricted by the system. So when she had her own kids, home-schooling was an easy choice.
“I want to be able to put my passion into my kids and help them find their passion too, so it didn’t take much,” said Raber.
The Rabers live in the city of Richmond. Because they’ve been homeschooling for awhile the expenses aren’t as bad as they used to be, but supplies still don’t come cheap.
“We need a microscope, we need counting things for the little guys, we need beakers. Things that schools would typically have we have to go out and buy,” Raber said. "So the supply list, including the textbooks, that’s huge.”
Republicans in Virginia want to make sure finances aren’t a barrier for families who don’t want to send their kids to public school, so they’re proposing giving the state’s share of per-pupil spending back to families who don’t send their kids to the public school system.
For the Rabers, that would be about $5,000 per kid, per year. Melissa Raber says, it makes sense.
“We’re tax paying citizens of the city, and we really don’t get anything for that,” Raber said. “My husband actually said one time, he said ‘We’re saving the city $100,000 a year by not sending our kids to public school, we’d like a check for that’.”
But whether they’re entitled to that check, hinges on whose money you think it is: the taxpayers’, or the state’s?
“We need to consider these as taxpayer dollars, and we manage them,” said Republican Delegate Dave LaRock, the bill’s sponsor.
"But the notion of some of that general fund money, which comes in from a variety of sources, going back and being controlled by parents, I wouldn’t think it should offend people at all,” said LaRock.
But it does offend proponents of public education, who argue the basic idea behind the bill is flawed.
“I believe in America that we’re using our tax money for the greater good of society,” said Meg Gruber, President of the Virginia Education Association.
“There are a lot of us who pay taxes, who do not have children in schools. Period. And I’d hate to think that some of those taxpayers would say ‘Well my children aren’t in school. So I want my tax money back’,” said Gruber.
Opponents of the bill also say it’s skewed towards helping the wealthy.
That’s because the amount a family might get back, around $5,000 a year back, is hardly enough to cover private school tuition, or the loss of a parent’s income for home schooling.
So instead of helping families who are far from being able to afford school choice, opponents say it would mostly subsidize those who already can send their kids to private school or homeschool.
But Delegate Dave LaRock says the bill "isn’t about social justice.”
For him, the focus was on enabling school choice -- even if it's just for a handful of families on the financial fence.
“There are many kids that are trapped in failing schools, and I don’t know that we’re doing them any bigger a favor to require they stay in a situation that’s not working for them, then we are to giving some the mobility to leave that situation,” said LaRock.
Republican leadership is putting heavy weight behind the measure, touting it as an important component of their education agenda this session.
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