Once again, I had the featured letter in the New York Sun–the issue is an extra-long, special second anniversary edition, with a front-page photo showing Mayor Bloomberg marking the anniversary by proclaiming “New York Sun day.” Five minutes after I had emailed it in (a few days ago), the Sun called and said they’d run the letter as soon as they had space. It’s a follow-up to my last one:
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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.