Opinion: Time to End Tax Breaks for Prep Schools

Private schools should be subject to property taxes and their donors denied income-tax deductions, a Slate blogger argues.

Writing for the online magazine’s Moneybox economics blog, Matthew Yglesias says conferring economic incentives in the form of charitable tax breaks on preparatory schools that largely serve well-to-do families “seems totally and obviously outrageous.”

“A private high school may be a nonprofit organization, but it’s certainly not a charity,” Mr. Yglesias writes (emphasis his). “It’s a private club for the benefit of the families involved. At best private school is a private consumption good like buying your kids expensive clothes or fancy toys.”