A federal judge in Kansas has struck down a tax increase in the Shawnee Mission School District. A victory for individual rights? Not in this case.
The reason the tax hike was struck down had nothing to do with protecting the taxpayer. The tax hike was struck down because it would make that district’s schools too good:
U.S. District Judge John W. Lungstrum dismissed the case on the grounds that the cap was a crucial and integral part of the state’s complex formula for distributing education funds in a manner meant to ensure that wealthy school districts don’t pull far ahead of poorer districts.
If you want to cap public-school spending to protect the taxpayer, I could get behind that. But capping public-school spending to keep schools from becoming better than others is simply perverse.
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