DC privates educating suburban kids

[Anonymous]

OP Please leave your tax dollars in the box when you come to MD to go to school. Since I am paying Montgomery County Income taxes, property taxes and MD state taxes I guess I am supporting the roads you are using as well as the Metro dollars we just had to put in and the snow clearing that was done so you could drive to MD to shop . My federal income dollars are also paying for your schools as well. Get the picture.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP Please leave your tax dollars in the box when you come to MD to go to school. Since I am paying Montgomery County Income taxes, property taxes and MD state taxes I guess I am supporting the roads you are using as well as the Metro dollars we just had to put in and the snow clearing that was done so you could drive to MD to shop . My federal income dollars are also paying for your schools as well. Get the picture.

Huh? Who said anything about going to school in MD? Also how do you know that the OP goes to MD to go shopping? Plus if they live in DC they pay federal taxes as well? You seem to have gotten lost along the way.

[Anonymous]

OP, this is the most ridiculous topic. These schools have no obligation to accept DC students. You want a private school to give preference to a student who can afford to go anywhere but chooses to go to a school in DC? If anything, this should only be for DC students who can not afford to go to private school and they do not have a good public school option, but the Democrats killed the DC Voucher program. Those are the kids who should get a leg up in to DC privates.

[Anonymous]

PP Completely agree.

[Anonymous]

OP, perhaps the short answer to your question is that tax-exempt status is not based on geography, but rather on the character of an organization's operations.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/501%28c%29

I suspect there are plenty of tax-exempt entities that are not designed to benefit (solely or even partly) their local communities. That's just not the policy goal of tax-exempt status.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, perhaps the short answer to your question is that tax-exempt status is not based on geography, but rather on the character of an organization's operations.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/501%28c%29

I suspect there are plenty of tax-exempt entities that are not designed to benefit (solely or even partly) their local communities. That's just not the policy goal of tax-exempt status.

The tax-exempt status you've cited refers to *federal* exemption. Some states use that definition as well, but not all.

The broader point is that the "goal of tax-exempt status" is whatever the legislative jurisdiction says it is. It's like those who say "marriage is a man and a woman". In other words, begging the question.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, perhaps the short answer to your question is that tax-exempt status is not based on geography, but rather on the character of an organization's operations.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/501%28c%29

I suspect there are plenty of tax-exempt entities that are not designed to benefit (solely or even partly) their local communities. That's just not the policy goal of tax-exempt status.

The tax-exempt status you've cited refers to *federal* exemption. Some states use that definition as well, but not all.

The broader point is that the "goal of tax-exempt status" is whatever the legislative jurisdiction says it is. It's like those who say "marriage is a man and a woman". In other words, begging the question.

... and my understanding is that the District of Columbia has chosen to confer local tax exempt status on entities that meet the federal definition. Imagine for a moment all the tax-exempt non-profits based in DC that are dealing with issues that have absolutely no link to the local DC community. By your logic, all those non-profits should face local District taxes because they're not aimed at local District issues. I think that would be a significant (and unwise) policy decision by the DC government. Among other things, it would lead all those non-profits to relocate their offices to MD/VA suburbs, and the people working at those non-profits would begin patronizing MD/VA businesses rather than District businesses.

[Anonymous]

Your argument is based on the incorrect assumption that tax-exempt status is based on the extent to which a non-profit serves DC residents. You are clearly not a tax expert, and should get your facts straight before propounding these nonsensical ideas.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Your argument is based on the incorrect assumption that tax-exempt status is based on the extent to which a non-profit serves DC residents. You are clearly not a tax expert, and should get your facts straight before propounding these nonsensical ideas.

Sorry, who are you talking to? Why not quote the PP you're responding to so folks can follow your argument?

Anyway, all this "you don't know tax code" posturing is a little silly. No one's claiming these institutions *aren't* tax exempt under current code, or that DC tax code is agnostic on the question of whether certain exempt institutions serve DC residents. That's the *entire* point of the debate.

[Anonymous]

You poor dear. There were 143 murders in DC in 2009. While that might be "low" by your standards, DC still has a much higher number of murders than say Montgomery County (12) or Fairfax County (14). PG County beats DC as well with 100 homicides for 2009. So based on your ridiculous post about the "low crime" in DC, I think you have been huffing glue behind the 7-11...

http://mpdc.dc.gov/mpdc/cwp/view,a,1239,q,561242,mpdcNav_GID,1523,mpdcNav,|.asp

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:D.C. has high crime, poor public schools and constant traffic congestion. While it has some nice museums, I wouldn't want to raise my precious children there.

I guess we suburbanites are in an enviable position, aren't we? We have great public schools, yet we keep on snapping up your private school spots too. I can see that you're bitter, but you really should get over it. Go do yoga or something...

I always find these sorts of posts entertaining. It's like folks are still stuck in 1985. Crime is at a 50 year low, and rarely touches middle-class residents; in fact, my relatives in Montgomery County seem to fear crime as much or more than my neighbors on Capitol Hill. I wouldn't know about "traffic congestion", since the only time I experience it is on one of my occasional trips out to the suburbs. I guess that would be of particular concern to you, as a suburbanite, since all those folks stuck in the gridlock have MD and DC license plates. In contrast, my commute consists of a 15 minute bike ride to work. Either that or a 20 min bus ride--door to door.

And as far as public schools go, having grown up in Montgomery County, and with relatives who still live there, I've seen what the growth of suburban poverty has done to MCPS. I think it's great that you've obviously found one of the good public school options--for the time being. But with big state budget cuts, and the well-documented demographic shift that's been taking place and acellerating, make no mistake, the suburbs are on the way down. Hold on to those private school spots--you're going to need them!

Bottom line: I don't want my kid growing up in a cul-de-sac, their sole intellectual stimulation huffing glue out behind the 7-11.

[Anonymous]

So, is someone actually suggesting that the DC tax code should be changed because their little darling lost out on private school to a suburbanite? Just when you think the entitlement can't get any worse . . . .

[Anonymous]

Eye opening stats. We all know that Montgomery and Fairfax Counties have great publics. But I wonder how DC's public rank against publics in other high crime areas? Who has better publics between DC and PG? Or perhaps DC and Baltimore City?

Anonymous wrote:You poor dear. There were 143 murders in DC in 2009. While that might be "low" by your standards, DC still has a much higher number of murders than say Montgomery County (12) or Fairfax County (14). PG County beats DC as well with 100 homicides for 2009. So based on your ridiculous post about the "low crime" in DC, I think you have been huffing glue behind the 7-11...

http://mpdc.dc.gov/mpdc/cwp/view,a,1239,q,561242,mpdcNav_GID,1523,mpdcNav,|.asp

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:D.C. has high crime, poor public schools and constant traffic congestion. While it has some nice museums, I wouldn't want to raise my precious children there.

I guess we suburbanites are in an enviable position, aren't we? We have great public schools, yet we keep on snapping up your private school spots too. I can see that you're bitter, but you really should get over it. Go do yoga or something...

I always find these sorts of posts entertaining. It's like folks are still stuck in 1985. Crime is at a 50 year low, and rarely touches middle-class residents; in fact, my relatives in Montgomery County seem to fear crime as much or more than my neighbors on Capitol Hill. I wouldn't know about "traffic congestion", since the only time I experience it is on one of my occasional trips out to the suburbs. I guess that would be of particular concern to you, as a suburbanite, since all those folks stuck in the gridlock have MD and DC license plates. In contrast, my commute consists of a 15 minute bike ride to work. Either that or a 20 min bus ride--door to door.

And as far as public schools go, having grown up in Montgomery County, and with relatives who still live there, I've seen what the growth of suburban poverty has done to MCPS. I think it's great that you've obviously found one of the good public school options--for the time being. But with big state budget cuts, and the well-documented demographic shift that's been taking place and acellerating, make no mistake, the suburbs are on the way down. Hold on to those private school spots--you're going to need them!

Bottom line: I don't want my kid growing up in a cul-de-sac, their sole intellectual stimulation huffing glue out behind the 7-11.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You poor dear. There were 143 murders in DC in 2009. While that might be "low" by your standards, DC still has a much higher number of murders than say Montgomery County (12) or Fairfax County (14). PG County beats DC as well with 100 homicides for 2009. So based on your ridiculous post about the "low crime" in DC, I think you have been huffing glue behind the 7-11...

Right, but the folks getting killed in DC are not middle class folks. At least in numbers significantly greater numbers than in MC, Fairfax. Aside from the fact that residents of DC have an obligation to help one another, Ward 7 may as well be Compton, CA to residents of other areas of the city.

Your crowing over these numbers would be akin to someone from Japan asking you how you stay alive every day when there's so much killing going on in Baltimore. It's a bit shameless...

[Anonymous]

Eye opening stats. We all know that Montgomery and Fairfax Counties have great publics. But I wonder how DC's public rank against publics in other high crime areas? Who has better publics between DC and PG? Or perhaps DC and Baltimore City?

Good questions.

In fact DC's public schools rank very poorly against publics with exclusively poor, minority demographics. But as the JKLM fetishists on DCUM will point out, the schools that aren't crippled by overwhelming poverty actually do quite well. At least a half dozen schools have flipped from the former category to the latter category on Capitol Hill in the last half-decade alone.

There's no question that DC has some bad public schools, lots of them--or that there are a lot of murders, there are. The solution to all of DC problems are already well underway--a demographic shift that drives a hefty portion of the some 30% of DC residents with a HHI of <$15k out to MD and VA.

[Anonymous]

I love the posts where people use intentionally-irritating phrases like "you poor dear" and "sweetie." It lends authority to their assertions, too.