On the 44th anniversary of the March on Washington, I found myself defending higher education at the Brookings Institution Poverty in 2006 seminar held at the National Press Club in downtown Washington, DC. Mayor Bloomberg, the keynote speaker, say some of the stupidest things that I ever heard: paying poor children for class attendance and good grades. As a first-generation college graduate whose paternal and maternal grandparents were on welfare even although all four held full-time jobs, the mayor’s so-called opportunity program was the dumbest thing economically and socially for New York City because giving children money is immoral. Regardless of social ranking, you were supposed to go to school for your own betterment. Since Bloomberg liked espousing the virtues of capitalism, let me break it down. Even though his opportunity fund was privately funded, that $50 million was a one-time deposit and all future income streams would be publicly raised. The fundamental problem with publicizing this program was that the parents would be doubled-taxed. For example, in FY2006 the parents’ property taxes were allocated to the school district which gave their child $500 for each standardized test and another $500 for perfect attendance. Say, that the kid passed all four parts of the merit assessment tests and achieved perfect attendance thereby receiving $2500. That $2500 would be reported as income earned by the child on his parents’ FY2006 tax form that they filed in FY 2007. That same $2500 would be taxed by the federal government again into perpetuity. Though well-meaning Mayor Bloomberg’s opportunity program was in direct violation of capitalism which was laissez faire of not allowing the federal government to intervene!
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