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On February 5, it was an extra $7 billion, requiring the largest tax increase in state history. By March 2, it was $9.6 billion. On March 26, it was an extra $16.5 billion for New York City alone. And still they're not satisfied ["The Plaintiff in Schools Case Asks $10B More," William F. Hammond Jr., April 13, 2004]. Dare I say "I told you so?" What makes this feeding frenzy possible is the premise that coercion is justified in the service of the needy, and that the taxpayers' lives and incomes belong first to society, which may help itself to as much as it sees fit. But educators who have something of value to offer do not need to demand compensation at gunpoint. All the extra loot that the educrats grab will simply serve to make them more effective at miseducating children. Parents choose to have children; for them to use the power of the government to force others to pay for their children's education is to evade the responsibility for the costs of their own decisions, and to try to foist those costs on unwilling victims. If people can't afford to educate their own kids, they shouldn't have them.