by Douglas Gross

Created on: April 28, 2008   Last Updated: April 30, 2008

Obama has said that he plans for college students to be able to get a $4000 tax credit for college for each year of school in exchange for 100 hours of community service. To the stout conservative this sounds perfectly obvious. Since the Democrats don't really want to lower your taxes $4000, you can work for a tax credit. However, this ploy is not so obvious to most modern liberal college students and their parents. Too often they hear this and think this is a substantial amount of money for college, and what better thing can you do for your government other than community service? As usual, politicians are preying upon the world that their propaganda has created, and the reality of this plan is set aside for the sake of its glow.

At $4000 for 100 hours of community service we are talking about a $40 tax credit per hour, working for the government about two hours a week throughout one entire year. That's probably more per hour than most college students make, but this time has to be set aside from the student's busy schedule. The student must set aside a morning, afternoon, or evening once each week to drive to the work site instead of work his regular job, study, or relax. In wondering what this community service may entail, I came up with this brief list:

Pick up garbage on the highway or in the park
Shovel roadkill off the cement
Help pull giant hairballs out of sewers
Inject poison into animals no longer welcome at the SPCA
Deliver returned county library books to the correct branch
Clean out the cages at the public zoo
Serve as crossguards
File paperwork at the police station
Teach inmates in jail or prison

I don't know about you, but considering how much trouble this money would be to receive, I would lose all interest in earning the money after the first month of community service. First of all, I personally can do a lot more to invest in myself than an $80 tax credit can buy in two hours plus commuting time, especially when I have homework and research to do. After classes and a student's regular job, your average college student is going to want to go to a party before worrying about not staying up too late to be able to rise early on Saturday morning to go rake leaves at the Legion Hall in the Fall. Earning that credit would be more inconvenient than helpful. Depending on how much taxes a student pays for $4000, he may be making more per hour at work than he will receive back per hour with his tax refund.

Much worse than this tax credit proposal is Obama's plan to eliminate the current FAFSA application for financial aid. Instead of filling out the FAFSA when wanting to go to a college, there will be a little checkbox on your income tax return form that you can check to allow your tax information to be used in the application's place. What this means is that the federal government under Obama would set up some kind of IRS database to determine how much financial aid each taxpayer is eligible for. So, rather than having an application that reflects your current financial circumstances, your financial need will be evaluated according to your most recent filing with the IRS. If you don't check the box when you file your income taxes, and on down the road you decide to enroll in college, the IRS will turn around and tell you that you did not apply for financial aid.

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