No you would still be able to do your own taxes. The scheme the IRS came up with was that they would fill out a form for you (complete with all your deductions and everything... no cheating... surprisingly) and if you agreed you just signed it and mailed it back (They would provide a SASE!). If you disagreed, you filled out a blank form and sent it in. They'd review it as usual.
It would be an option available to everyone, but required of no one.
That all seems really complicated and unstable to me. We would be much better off with a nationally standard system that is funded properly so that no matter where you live you can receive a good education. You could always pay a private school because you want to send your kid to a religious school or a specialty school. Or maybe the DoE could contract trainers in specialty subjects to teach at select schools for a fee. And I mean subjects like Film History and certain types of art while all schools would be teaching core subjects that are important to college education.
There is already a sort of national standard system. It's called the Common Core and all but 4 or so states are adopting it. I've heard that the DoE cannot implement standards for the whole nation. The Common Core is, from what I understand, an agreement between almost all states. They all agree to teach under these standards. The roll out is happening right now with the first sets of standardized tests coming out in school year '14-'15, if I'm not mistaken.
Thats basically what I said except I can see anyone using a private firm might be suspected of gaming the system since anyone can use the free and easy method from the IRS that would prevent cheating. Basically "If you are clean and they do it for free why wouldnt you use it? Are you trying to hide something?"
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In most situations people who take these courses do so either because they were not offered at their school(unlikely as they are basic subjects), or they did not take them because they were not required and should have been(a failure of the school). Sometimes they are required because incoming students do poorly on placement exams, so they passed the class in school but didnt learn what they should have and the school still gave them good grades. The students then have inflated GPAs from taking easy classes that get them into college which they cant complete because their school didnt teach them what they needed to learn.
Originally Posted by Marjane Satrapi
Or the case of someone simply not trusting the IRS and deciding to double check to make sure they're not getting short-changed. Or perhaps the IRS, when preparing the one they mailed out, didn't have some details right. For instance, how is the IRS going to be 100% on top of someone's capital gains? It would work extremely well for those who don't have side incomes, haven't received some big gift (such as a car), or other abnormal things, which is a rather large number of people. Those who filing for taxes is a very cut and dry, uncomplicated matter because they work their job and that's it. Unless the IRS sees every time you make a charitable donation, or anything like that, it seems unlikely that they'd be able to accurately file everyone's taxes for them.
The main issue is not with the set of educational standards but the standardization of funding, teacher quality, and what you do with the educational standards(i.e. not defunding failing schools and making them even worse). DoE cant implement national standards because at some point education was determined to be a state issue. It could just as well be a federal issue just like healthcare.
I agree that some students come in with inflated GPA's from easy high schools (I came from one of them, except I always took college-level courses). I just believe Johnny's education depends on school, family, and other societal circumstances instead of merely his school.
The amount of money university professors are earning in US and Canada is disastrous
Oh no, I agree wholeheartedly. I was just posting reasons people would use something other than what the IRS mailed out than to cheat on their taxes.Which is why the proposed system is actually quote good since it covers the bare bones which allowing for any outliers to be double-checked if necessary.