Cornelia Schneider: Expanded school vouchers and the reverse Robin Hood effect

To The Daily Sun,

That sucking sound readers will soon hear is the sound of money being sucked out of their wallets to pay increased property taxes because wealthy people no longer pay interest and dividend taxes. The repeal of the I&D tax disproportionately benefits wealthy New Hampshire households and hurts the rest of us.

The other sucking sound they will hear is the sound of money being sucked out of public schools to pay well-off parents who already send their children to private or religious schools or have the free time to educate at home.

NH has 20,000 children in private, religious or home schools. When Republicans pass expanded school vouchers, all those parents will request $5,000 from the state. Who wouldn’t? It’s a bonus check. Twenty-thousand times $5,000 equals $100 million. Where’s that money coming from? It will come from our public schools and will eventually require a rise in property taxes.

Rural communities are the biggest losers in this school voucher scheme. We suffer the triple whammy of losing public school money from the state, paying more in property taxes and having our school monies sent to towns and counties which have many more private and religious schools. Some private and religious schools are already increasing tuition in preparation for the windfall.

There’s a term for this. When wealth is transferred from the poor or middle class to the wealthy it’s called the “Reverse Robin Hood Effect”, and it’s happening in our town, our county, our state and our nation right now.

Cornelia Schneider

Moultonborough