Tax Cuts and Education
Sensationalized News Reporting
By Daniel Muniz

Below is an interesting headline I saw for a story in my local newspaper:

Lower income — Resident says forget tax cuts; teach kids

Source: The San Antonio Express-News (for all quotes)

And it doesn’t really matter which city and state you live in because the controversy is usually the same. That is, our school system needs more tax dollars instead of tax cuts. In addition, the implication is that affluent people are too concerned about their own wallet instead of children receiving a quality education.

The newspaper goes on to explain that impoverished resident, Liz Davila, worries about the education that her grandchildren are receiving. She is about one step away from being destitute because her annual income is less than 20k and the value of her home is also less than 25k.

But in all reality, she is not much of a taxpayer.

Admittedly, even in the low cost of living for the city of San Antonio, she is in poverty. But I find it amazing that the newspaper wants to detail her frustration as a taxpayer even though her tax burden doesn’t come anywhere close to what I and everybody else has to pay.

She goes on to say:

"I really don't agree with reduced property taxes. To me, they should invest in education," said Davila, who grew up in the 75-year-old home.

Unfortunately, the local paper doesn’t talk about the huge investments that taxpayers have already made to school districts, especially from the federal government as well the state “Robin Hood” tax redistribution plans. In addition to schools, money for numerous local government programs and services has to come from somewhere since they do not obviously come from her.

Nor does the newspaper article even go into detail about the failures of the enormous amount of money already spent on education other than suggesting that our schools need more of it. And too bad the paper didn’t bother to interview people who already pay a staggering share of taxes, especially for all the other taxing entities that help keep the city, county, state, and federal government going. That perspective would be a lot different than someone who pays hardly anything in taxes.

The Express-News then mentions:

She wants lawmakers to focus on improving public education instead of cutting taxes.

That is quite a euphoric way to skirt the entire issue. That is, improve public education which really means for us not to take money away from it. But the article still failed to say anything about the sad state of education in the first place even though failing school districts, including poor ones, already have huge budgets along with plans to build bigger buildings and enlarge other infrastructure.

And some of the poor districts of my city also have countless school officials who have been arrested, indicted, or serving time in prison for bribery and corruption. The same is true for a lot of other urban areas especially where there is so much money gushing out in the effort to “improve” our schools. But that is just a convenient omission from the media.

Here is another interesting comment from her:

"I just feel that they are not interested in educating our children," she said. "Their children probably go to private schools."

Suppose her grandchildren did have the same option, like a school voucher to go to a private school? Would she prefer that her grandchildren could actually get a choice of where to get their education from, especially if their own schools were failing?

And for the last bit of melodrama, the newspaper includes the following:

Davila has become a surrogate mother for three grandchildren, who live with her. She said she feels "a cold anger" toward lawmakers who are more inclined to cut property taxes than to improve public education.

Again, too bad my local newspaper didn’t feel inclined to interview people like me who already pay a disproportionate amount of taxes because I would express my own “cold anger” of paying an exorbitant taxes to my own school district as well as the portion of it that is redistributed to other school districts who continue to shamelessly waste the tax revenues in providing a shoddy education in impoverished schools.

I don’t want to trivialize the input of poor people in the school financing debate because it is important to hear everybody's opinion. Likewise, it is pure arrogance of the media to sensationalize the plight of the poor while ignoring the failures of the current systems especially because so much money has already been spent and wasted with almost nothing to show for it.

But also, there is nothing wrong with people who pay high taxes wanting their tax burdens reduced. Yet the press depicts them as uncaring or ruthless even though their taxes have already financed education for everybody else.

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