Post by @ProPublica@newsie.social

2026-10-05 14:30 UTC

NEW: Remember when John Oliver opened a church to expose how easy it was to get tax exemptions? This year, ProPublica reporters set out to establish private schools to test if, truly, anyone could open one. We founded two. Here’s how. https://www.propublica.org/article/propublica-reporters-private-school-owners?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=mastodon-post #Journalism #School #Teaching #Education #Children #Regulation #Media

Replies (9)

@MatthewChat@mstdn.social 2026-10-05 14:39

@ProPublica@newsie.social Trump buried his wife Ivana on his golf course to get the cemetary tax deduction. All this crap is stupid easy and profitable.

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@TimWardCam@c.im 2026-10-05 15:07

@ProPublica@newsie.social Land Of The Free, innit. It's not the business of the woke leftie nanny state to interfere.

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@chrisfuen@mastodon.social 2026-10-05 15:25

@ProPublica@newsie.social An excellent example of investigative reporting and a frightening look at the dumbification (that's dumb with a "d") of how our kids may suffer inadequate education at the hands of random homeschool and micro-school purveyors. SUPPORT PUBLIC SCHOOLS!

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@Beachbum@mastodon.sdf.org 2026-10-05 17:21

@ProPublica@newsie.social Great reporting!

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@sbourne@mastodon.social 2026-10-05 17:22

@ProPublica@newsie.social Kind of a shame you don't actually want to run a school. I'll bet it would be pretty awesome.

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@wcbdata@vis.social 2026-10-06 02:58

@ProPublica@newsie.social brb, enrolling my kids in the ProPublica charter school.

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@bzdev@fosstodon.org 2026-10-06 06:07

@ProPublica@newsie.social John Oliver wasn't the first person to explore the "church as a tax exemption" trick. In the 1970s, I met a guy who was a minister in "The Universal Life Church" (or something with a similar name). They sent him instructions on how to set things up and get all sorts of tax breaks. Meanwhile the IRS was proceeding carefully out of concern that a court precedent could turn the U.S. into a country of ministers, so it worked for a while.

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@Npars01@mstdn.social 2026-10-09 18:57

@ProPublica@newsie.social No wonder Jeff Yass bribed Greg Abbott to get voucher schools with taxpayer dollars. https://texasstandard.org/stories/texas-governor-greg-abbott-donation-jeff-yass-school-vouchers/ https://keystonenewsroom.com/news/jeffrey-yass-profits-from-school-vouchers/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/12/05/jeff-yass-school-choice-trump/ https://acrecampaigns.org/research_post/companies-run-by-pennsylvania-billionaires-among-top-recipients-of-states-school-voucher-tax-credit-programs/ https://www.texastribune.org/2024/02/27/greg-abbott-tim-dunn-paxton-vouchers-republican-primary-texas/ https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/texas-elections-biggest-donors/ https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/columnists/tomlinson/article/texas-abbott-yass-donation-billionaire-18613046.php https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/billionaire-tim-dunn-runs-texas/ The potential for tax evasion, frauds, & scams is unlimited. https://thetexan.news/elections/2024/pro-school-choice-donor-gives-abbott-6-million-donation-ahead-of-2024-primary-crusade/article_dbcae1bc-b4bb-11ee-92a3-73cfd3a130a3.html https://www.texastribune.org/2024/02/21/glenn-rogers-texas-gop-primary/ https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/greg-abbott-school-vouchers-runoff-elections/ https://newrepublic.com/article/179910/abbott-paxton-texas-republican-primaries https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/texas-gop-comptroller-primary-don-huffines/

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@alextecplayz@techhub.social 2026-10-05 15:23

@2k_115@mastodon.social AI slop account posting AI-generated replies to everything.

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