Reply to why do our tax dollars subsidize private schools?

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[quote=Anonymous]Some recent threads about fairness/equity in terms of school offerings got me thinking...why don't private schools have to pay their fair share of taxes?

These local private schools, some costing almost $40k per year, (complete with multi-million dollar fundraising drives, capital campaigns, sports complexes, performing arts facilities, fields, beautiful facilities, and on and on) are exempt from paying a single dime in property taxes on their lavish campuses.  WHY???

They are not some sort philanthropic organizations working for the greater good or something similar.  They are exclusive private schools who are able to charge obscene amounts of money for tuition and ALSO collect additional multi-millions for fundraising efforts.  Why, then, do the taxpayers (most of whom could not come close to paying even one of these tuition amounts) have to subsidize these schools (I say subsidize b/c every $ not collected from these schools in terms of property taxes must come from the rest of us).

If these schools had to pay the appropriate amount of property taxes then I would feel that they can provide whatever over-the-top offerings the parents are willing to pay for (a private transaction and all).  But when we are subsidizing their lavish facilities, I find it obscene and vulgar.

I sometimes think that, as public school parents, we quibble with each other (or look at some additional thing that one school has that another doesn't have) but we completely MISS the larger point: private schools are there the gulf between the haves and the have-nots occur and WE are the ones subsidizing them.  These schools should pay their fair share of taxes and, frankly, that money should be earmarked for use in supplementing the public school enrichment activities in the same jurisdiction.  Why do we allow this type of inequity to continue? [/quote]

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