Florida families get a one-month sales tax break starting July 20 just to afford pencils, backpacks, and laptops for their kids — a quiet confession that the cost of basic education has become a crisis for working Americans.
The state's back-to-school sales tax holiday, running July 20 through August 20, waives sales tax on clothing and footwear under $100, school supplies under $50, personal computers under $1,500, and learning aids and jigsaw puzzles under $30, according to the Florida Department of Revenue. Thirty-nine of Florida's 67 counties start the school year August 10; the rest begin by August 13.
The relief is real but telling. Families wouldn't need a tax holiday if inflation hadn't gutted their paychecks and if public schools still covered the basics. Instead, parents shell out for supplies that districts once provided — while universities in the same state burn millions on administrative bloat and ideological programming, and Washington sends billions overseas.
President Trump will visit metro Atlanta next Wednesday to promote a different kind of relief: "Trump Accounts," a tax-advantaged savings vehicle that debuted July 4 under last year's Republican tax and spending package. Families can contribute up to $5,000 annually on a tax-deferred basis for children under 18, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. Trump is expected to appear at Wheeler High School in Cobb County, with Senate nominee Mike Collins joining.
The program acknowledges the same problem the tax holiday does: families need help footing the bill for their children's future. But tax-deferred savings accounts and one-month sales tax breaks are bandages. The wound is the cost itself.
Florida is also offering a second tax holiday this year — more than three months of tax-free hunting, fishing, and camping supplies, per the Naples Daily News. That one comes later. The back-to-school break is what working parents are watching now.
TCPalm and the Naples Daily News both ran the eligible-items lists and county start dates straight, consumer-service style. Neither asked why parents need government permission to save 6 or 7 percent on crayons. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution framed Trump's visit around the "savings program" without pressing on whether $5,000 annual contributions make a dent against college costs that have ballooned under federal loan programs and administrative empire-building. Nobody asked the obvious question: why does the government need to create a special account for families to save for education that was supposed to be free?
The founders argued over how to build a republic of educated citizens. They didn't imagine a country where parents would need a tax holiday to buy composition books — or a special federal account just to save for tuition.
