A Faith-Based Alternative To Tuition?

Business Week tells this tale of how to afford a real education for your girls and boys in Kansas. I'll bet you $20 the IRS comes down hard on them.

Are Catholic churches in Kansas helping parents of more than 10,300 students evade taxes? A Wichita accountant fears they are, through a "stewardship" program that substitutes church tithing for parochial school tuition. Catholics in the Diocese of Wichita's 38 schools pay no tuition so long as they are "active stewards" in their church. That can include tithing of up to 8% of gross income. Non-Catholics pay up to $7,000 tuition, and get no deduction. "They issue receipts for me to cheat the IRS," says CPA Thai Mai, who complained to the agency. "I get one. Everybody gets one."

Church officials insist that Thai is off base. Bob Voboril, superintendent of schools for the diocese, says tithes can be deductible so long as they are not tied directly to nondeductible expenses such as tuition. He says the diocese "scrupulously" abides by IRS guidelines. Churches issue receipts claiming services to donors are "intangible religious benefits."

The IRS won't comment, citing privacy. For now, the idea is largely limited to Kansas Catholics. But others are studying it. Tithing could become a popular education option -- and a costly one for the feds.

In a just world, people who send their kids to real schools in order to avoid the government kind would not have to pay to support those sheep factories that are designed to produce young adults who toe the establisment's line.

Guess what kind of world this is.