Second in a series
Americans pause this month to reflect on the legacy of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. It is fitting that we do so because he led a dramatic civil rights revolution by asking if America still abided by her founding creed that we are all created equal and have the right to live free and develop to the fullest our God-given talents.
King refused to believe that the vaults of opportunity and justice were empty. He was right. Thanks to his efforts, the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the 1965 Voting Rights Act, and other measures, those vaults were opened.
And yet so much remains to be done. While the black middle class has grown since the 1960s, blacks remain disproportionately plagued by unemployment, poverty, and limited family assets. So, we must remove the heavy hand of big government that impedes black progress today just as rampant racism restrained blacks in the past. I believe that expanding educational freedom and economic opportunity is the great civil rights battleground of the 21st century.
America cannot excel in this new economy if it traps millions of children in mismanaged, bureaucratic, educational wastelands.
A good education is a civil right and a passport to economic freedom. No mother should be forced to send her child to a bad school. As president, therefore, I will immediately turn federal education funds into block grants for states and local communities with one proviso: Give parents the freedom to choose schools that work - public, private, or parochial - and give teachers the freedom to create such schools.
The Forbes administration will champion a wide range of local and state-based reforms to improve public schools and give parents and teachers more control. Such reforms include opportunity scholarships, educational savings accounts, tuition tax credits, more charter schools, merit pay for teachers, fast-track teacher certification for retired business leaders and military officials, and the creation of a new frontier of faith-based schools.
I will also fight for tax freedom. Last spring, I met with black ministers in Baltimore. ''The folks in my church are beginning to move ahead,'' one pastor told me. ''They're beginning to create some wealth. They're putting together a nest egg for the future. But now, they're facing new threats - like capital gains taxes and inheritance taxes that threaten to take away huge portions of what they want to pass on to their children. What can we do about that?''
The Internal Revenue Service and 7.5 million-word federal tax code are real barriers to equal opportunity. So it is time to bury the tax code.
The Forbes flat-tax plan provides $648 billion in tax relief over the next five years. Taxpayers will be free to choose an honest, simple, flat tax that treats everyone fairly and equally. There is no tax on savings, pensions, or Social Security. There is no marriage penalty, no death tax. Generous personal exemptions of $13,000 for each adult and $5,000 for each child mean a family of four earnings $36,000 a year would pay no federal income tax at all, an annual savings of $1,670. That's real money for real people struggling to pay their mortgages, afford health insurance, and save for college. And 20 million low-income Americans would be removed from the tax rolls all together.
Beyond education and taxes is the issue of wealth creation. In 1998, the Urban League reported that white families enjoy nearly 12 times more financial assets than black families. How do we help close this ''racial asset'' gap?
The key is freeing workers to have the lion's share of their Social Security taxes deposited in their own personal retirement accounts. Under the Forbes plan, seniors are fully protected - no benefit cuts, no increased retirement age, and no more raids on the Social Security trust fund.
In fact, we must remove current taxes on Social Security benefits and current beneficiaries. Promises made must be promises kept. Workers under 55, meanwhile, could use their new accounts to create real personal wealth. A single mother raising two children and earning $36,000 per year could retire with a nest egg exceeding a half-million dollars.
Done right, Social Security reform represents the greatest opportunity in American history to wipe out hard-core poverty in the next generation. African-American men would be this new system's greatest beneficiaries. Sadly, they tend to have shorter life spans than others and often see little if any of their Social Security benefits. But under our plan, a black man who dies prematurely would leave his assets not to the Treasury but to his widow and children - tax free.
Can America fulfill King's dream of freedom and opportunity? The answer depends on whether we choose politics-as-usual or a principled, substantive vision for genuine reform. Let us choose wisely.
Steve Forbes is a Republican candidate for president.
