Schools nationwide, especially in Maine, are in critical trouble – on measures of accountability, outcomes (NAEP results), curricula (life skills), teacher pay and morale, industrial arts, administrative cost, and other indicia. Tax policy will not change that – but back-to-school tax holidays…will help parents. Maine and other states should adopt them.
Nationwide, teacher pay and morale are in the pits (Maine’s among the lowest), NAEP scores are shockingly low (Maine’s the “lowest…in three decades in reading and math), and cost-per-pupil is out of control, especially matched to falling outcomes, suggesting a failed education model.
In Maine, cost-per-pupil – attributable to fiscal mismanagement, state-level mandates, union fixation on money, and aging infrastructure – hit a record. Depending on the school district, even as Maine’s Democrat Attorney General sues to hobble Christian schools, the cost-per-pupil hit $65,863.
Of course, this cost – in combination with the cost of Democrat mandates on counties and towns – has driven Maine property taxes to astronomical levels. Maine is now in a property tax hurricane.
Taking everything back to basics, putting aside larger problems, who pays property taxes? Who has to wrestle failing schools, argue with school boards, protect their kids from indoctrination, block ideological insanity, like putting boys in girls’ sports? Parents. So, they need a break.
Today, only 17 states offer a “back-to-school tax holiday” for parents on all things tied to going back to school – clothes, books, school supplies, computers, printers, the works. Only Florida makes the back-to-school “tax holiday” an entire month.
So, bold idea: As school enrollment drops – especially in Maine, which saw a 73 percent drop in five years – and parents struggle to make ends meet and trust public schools, how about a hand up? Maine should offer a one-month “back-to-school tax holiday” for parents, encouraging school.
This small measure of respect for the unaffordability, strained trust, and overall failure of Maine’s Democrat-led government will not fix the educational collapse many see, feel, and shudder at, but it will help parents at wit’s end, wrestle with one less alligator, and cover one more unaffordable cost.
In Florida, the median per capita income is $68,703, while in Maine it is $39,718. If Florida can do it, Maine can do it. And Florida ALSO has no income tax, and is seriously considering rolling back property taxes. If Florida can help individuals, parents, and families, why not Maine?
Bottom line: Education reform in Maine is decades overdue and must occur. Tax policy reform is decades overdue and must occur. Spending, waste, and taxes must be cut. But for now, how about a simple, parent-friendly, school-promoting, one-month “back-to-school tax holiday”?
Robert Charles is a former Assistant Secretary of State under Colin Powell, former Reagan and Bush 41 White House staffer, Maine attorney, ten-year naval intelligence officer (USNR), and 25-year businessman. He wrote “Narcotics and Terrorism” (2003), “Eagles and Evergreens” (North Country Press, 2018), and “Cherish America: Stories of Courage, Character, and Kindness” (Tower Publishing, 2024). He is the National Spokesman for AMAC. Today, he is running to be Maine’s next Governor (please visit BobbyforMaine.com to learn more)!
The back to school tax holiday makes sense and it would indicate a recognition that fairness is a good quality. The idea of fairness is basic to having things in balance. The National Assessment of Education Progress indicates that there is plenty of room for improvement in Maine and many other States. The spirit of education should involve having systems that are uplifting for students, parents, and every part of society that has the desire to keep an orderly way of thinking at the foundation. Academic achievement will be realized when all concerned are doing what is responsible. And would mean encouraging a team effort .There is a place and time for competition and a time and place for cooperation . The quality of the
curriculum should involve ideas and suggestions from students and parents..This sure enough is a Faith, Family, Freedom issue and it is being presented at the right time of year. One suggestion about what would help in many ways would be to encourage independent research by students on topics that are of their choosing and would be of benefit to the whole Country. Good ideas foster good actions
A back to school tax holiday will be appreciated, I am sure, but even better would be allowing the $65,863 to follow the student, not pour it into a public school system that is failing both the kids, parents, and society!
And what could possibly be the cause of these massive, across the state FAILURES in Maine? The answer simple and has two factors:
1. FAILED DEMOCRAT POLICIES
2. DUMBA$$ DEMOCRAT VOTERS FOR ELECTING ALL THESE DUMBA$$ DEMOCRAT POLITICIANS.
IT TRULY IS THAT SIMPLE.
WAKE UP MAINERS OR CONTINUE ENJOYING YOUR MISERY AND GETTING SCREWED, BLUED AND TATTOOED BY AMERICA’S ENEMIES WITHIN – THE DEMS.
The only way to change and improve any system would be to make the one for whom it is intended a priority, somehow I see the opposite, being it the school or “health care” system. It would seem it serves the provider first.