To help defray some of the costs teachers often bear to get supplies for their classroom, Sen. Susan Collins authored a law 15 years ago that allowed them to take a tax deduction of $250 for their expenses.
Last year, the Maine Republican succeeded in making the teacher tax deduction permanent so it wouldn’t have to be reauthorized every so often.
It’s not looking so permanent now.
This year’s House GOP tax bill would strip away the provision entirely, a move that educators say flunks basic public policy.
The Senate version, though, apparently leaves the tax break in place.
If the Senate approves a measure that doesn’t touch Collins’ provision, it’s unlikely it would wind up in a final bill that might result if both houses approve tax plans that don’t match. Typically, Congress has a joint committee that works out the differences between competing bills so that a matching one can be brought up in both the House and Senate.
“As a teacher who — like every teacher I know — has spent thousands of my own dollars to make sure my students had what they needed, I am appalled that American leaders want to steal from teachers to give tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans,” said Zak Ringelstein, a teacher who founded an education business.
Ringelstein, a Democrat who is challenging independent U.S. Sen. Angus King of Maine, said there are weeks “when fellow teachers and I had a hard time paying car payments and medical bills because we put our students first.
“Teachers ask for so little in return for the invaluable service they provide to society,” he said. “If anything, we should give the $1.7 trillion this tax bill would cost Americans to raise teacher pay so that we give them their due respect and make our public schools the very best in the world.”
Collins said last year that it “is remarkable how often our teachers in Maine and throughout the country take money out of their own pockets to purchase classroom supplies for our children.”
“Everywhere I go I find teachers who sacrifice their own money to ensure that our nation’s children have the resources they need to receive a good quality education,” she said.
The Educator Expense Deduction allows up to a $250 tax credit for certified elementary or secondary teachers who worked at least 900 hours at a public, private or religious school during the relevant tax year.
Teachers have to be able to prove they spent at least $250 on items for their classroom such as books, computer software, athletic equipment or anything else used for educational purposes.
The president of the National Education Association, Lily Eskelsen García, denounced the GOP move this month in a public statement.
“As educators spend more and more of their own funds each year to buy basic essentials, Republican leaders choose to ignore the sacrifice made by those who work in our nation’s public schools to make sure students have adequate books, pencils, paper and art supplies,” she said.
The House bill, which lawmakers plan to vote on Thursday, strips out a number of smaller tax breaks in a bid to simplify the tax code. It doubles the standard deduction that most taxpayers rely on to compensate for the removal of many provisions that help specific groups.
U.S. Sen. Susan Collins speaks at a forum on tax reform at Volk Packaging in Biddeford on Friday, Nov. 10. She wrote a law 15 years ago that allowed teachers to take a tax deduction of $250 for their expenses. This year, the House GOP tax bill would strip away the provision entirely. (AP file photo)
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