Subsidize This

By SETH SANDRONSKY

Public schools are losing. Private interests are winning. Here are the numbers. US public schools lost a total of $1.8 billion due to economic development tax incentives for corporations in 2017, according to a new report from Good Jobs First, a watchdog group in Washington, D.C. (goodjobsfirst.org/newmath).

In this case, the term economic development conceals more than it reveals. At the end of the day, who wins and who loses when governments shift public tax dollars to corporate pockets comes into sharper focus with Good Jobs First unpacking the financial reports of 5,600 of America’s 13,500 independent public school districts across 28 states.

Did somebody say the miracle of the marketplace? Well, government hands are all over this story, contrary to nonsense about the efficiency of market forces. The recent announcement of Amazon receiving billions of public tax dollars for its “HQ2” is a case in point.

We return to what Good Jobs First found. “The report, entitled The New Math on School Finance, was enabled by a new accounting standard adopted by the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB), the body that sets accounting rules followed by all states and most localities,” according to a Good Jobs First statement. “The new rule, GASB Statement No. 77 on Tax Abatement Disclosures, requires most state and local governments to report annually on the amount of revenue they’ve lost to corporate tax abatements. The report also raises the issue of apparent non-compliance with the new accounting rule by school districts in many states.”

The devil is in these details, folks. Corporate interests get it. The rest of us are playing catch up, as blue and red states dance to music of the status quo. School districts in the 10 hardest hit states, among them Louisiana, New York and South Carolina, collectively lost $1.6 billion, enough to hire 28,000 new teachers.

Study after study shows that smaller class sizes improve students’ learning. Teachers can spend more time with students that way. This is not rocket science.

“The numbers for Louisiana are astounding—even more so, in that local bodies are still under-reporting about $500 million in subsidies. As more school districts begin to comply with this new mandate, this report from Good Jobs First will become a treasure trove of hidden insight into how our government truly functions,” said Dianne Hanley, a representative for Together Louisiana, a statewide coalition of faith communities and civic organizations.

The Good Jobs First statement continues. “The new rule is especially important for understanding school finance, because it requires the reporting of revenue losses even if they are suffered passively by one government body as the result of decisions made by another body of government. School boards rarely have input into abatement decisions made by city councils or county boards. Yet schools, are often the most adversely affected when property tax abatements or other local tax breaks are granted.”

One thing is clear. The US tax-break system that defunds public schools will not end by itself. Movement politics can be the force to confront this system.

Seth Sandronsky lives and works in Sacramento. He is a journalist and member of the Pacific Media Workers Guild. Email sethsandronsky@gmail.com.

From The Progressive Populist, December 15, 2018

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