There is a surcharge on higher education and it can amount to 100 percent.

You didn't know that, did you?

We certainly wouldn't get a clue from our politicians. Regardless of party, if you listen to these masters of deception, you would think they favor education.

They don't. They tax it. The dismal truth is that our government often collects a dollar in taxes for every dollar its citizens spend on higher education.

Yes, you read that right. I know this isn't part of the Shared Mythology of government support for education. But let's take a look at how we pay for education and how Uncle Sam gets to collect.

Suppose you are going to college. As with many young people, your parents will put up some of the money, you'll work for some more, and you'll borrow the remainder.

Millions of people have gotten their degrees this way. Depending on which loan program you choose, repaying a college loan can be stretched out for as long as 30 years… although 10 years is a more common period.

Now look at the economics:

Loan Cost. If you borrow $1,000 for 10 years and pay a fairly typical 8.5 percent interest rate you'll have monthly payments of $12.40. This means you will return $1,488 over the course of the loan--- $1,000 in principal and $488 in interest. Unfortunately, interest on education debt is not tax deductible. So the longer the repayment period, the higher the true cost of the debt. In the extreme case of stretching the loan to 30 years, you would pay a total of $2,768 on a $1,000 loan.

Tax Cost. Even more unfortunate, your payments will be made from your after-tax income. If you are in the 28 percent tax bracket and then include the employees portion of the employment tax, 7.6 percent, you are paying 35.6 percent of each dollar of earnings in taxes BEFORE you make a loan payment. Since the true burden of the employment tax belongs entirely to the employee, a more realistic estimate of the tax cost would include another 7.6 percent, bringing the total to 43.2 percent. At the lower rate, you'll have to pay $822 in taxes to repay $1000 in principal and $488 in interest. At the higher rate, you'll have to pay $1,132 in taxes to do the same thing. Note that the tax payments can actually EXCEED the original amount loaned.

There could be a lot of quibbling about these figures. One might argue, for instance, that the 28 percent tax bracket is too high. In some cases it is. But for any single person who earns over $30,500, all additional income IS taxed at 28 percent. For any couple earning a combined income over $51,900 a year, all additional income IS taxed at 28 percent. That puts most college graduates right in the path of the 28 percent tax rate. Those who earn less are very likely to have difficulty repaying the loans.

Then again, I've made no allowance for the additional burden of any state income taxes. Since more states have income taxes than don't have income taxes, the true total burden of education costs would have to be adjusted upward.

But that's not really the point.

The point is that our federal government collects about $1 in taxes as a kind of surcharge or duty on every $1 loaned out for education. It collects a little less if parents pay for education by taking out a home equity loan with tax deductible interest. And it collects only about $0.55 to $0.76 per dollar if parents pay for education out of current income… provided only they can perform the miracle of paying current college bills out of a 28 percent tax bracket income…

So I ask you, where does education really rank with our friends in Congress? Answer: somewhat lower than home ownership. Lower than charitable giving. Significantly lower than investment in business equipment.

If you buy a computer to stay competitive in business you can deduct the entire cost against revenue, paying neither employment nor federal income taxes. But if you "buy" the degree in engineering, computer science, or anything else that might use that computer, you'll have to pay the government of the United States what amounts to a duty because education carries the same tax burden as the purchase of chewing gum or movie tickets.