James Sensenbrenner, September 19, 2002

The Labor Day weekend has come and gone, and we are now at that time of the year when we start to make the transition from summer to fall, while parents, teachers and students jump into the ‘back-to-school’ mode.

With school fresh on many people’s mind, Republicans in the House have made a key education priority for this fall H.R. 5193, the Back to School Tax Relief Act, of which I am a cosponsor.

H.R. 5193 would help families pay for the best education for their children. This bill would allow families who file income taxes to deduct $3,000 for qualified educational expenses for Higher education, as well as for K-12 public, private, religious or home schools. Qualified expenses include: tuition, fees, academic tutoring, special needs services, books, supplies, uniforms, transportation and expenses for computer technology and equipment.

By including K-12 schools, H.R. 5193 would expand current law which only allows families to deduct this $3,000 for higher education expenses. Originally enacted into law last year as part of the President’s tax relief package, families do not have to itemize to take this deduction, but can claim it in addition to the standard deduction.

Under H.R. 5193, the deduction would be available to individuals with annual adjusted gross incomes of $20,000 or less, and $40,000 or less for married couples. It would not siphon money away from federal education spending, because while it would allow taxpayers to keep more of their money, it would not make any corresponding reduction in other spending programs.

H.R. 5193 is another piece of legislation in a line of bills that the House has passed to help American families provide for their children. For example, earlier this year in April, the House passed the Tax Relief Guarantee Act, which included a provision that would make permanent the increased education IRA contribution limits signed into law last year. As with several other pieces of important legislation, the Senate has yet to act on this bill.

Although Congress has a lot on its agenda before it breaks for the November election, H.R. 5193 would be an important bill to pass. According to the most recent data from the Heritage Foundation, a Washington, DC think tank, in Wisconsin alone, about 207,939 families, and 398,826 children could potentially have benefited from the education tax deduction in 2000.

As parents, we always want what’s best for our children. With the continually rising costs of education these days, any extra money that can be saved, or directed toward funding our kids’ education, is welcome.

James Sensenbrenner, a Republican, represents the Ninth Congressional District of Wisconsin in the U.S. House of Representatives.