The pro-tax group that’s already spent a million bucks on this fall’s billion dollar tax hike has a fancy “tax calculator” that will tell you how much your household will pay.

The average income for a family in the middle quintile of income is $49,842. Plug that in to the tax calculator, and you find this average family will pay additional income tax of $102.17.

This average family pays $196 a year for fresh fruit according to the Consumer Expenditure Survey of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. (All 2011 national data here)

Is it fair to take half the fruit away from the family kitchen table in order to spend a billion bucks on education with

  • no guaranteed reduction in classrom sizes? And
  • no guaranteed improvement in students’ learning progress?

There’s got to be a better way to polish an apple for the teacher.