Deep thought

Comments (23)

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1. Perry says:

   July 7, 2009 at 10:59 am

   Educating our children is a community responsibility, therefore all must contribute.

2. cassandra m says:

   July 7, 2009 at 11:06 am

   I wonder about that anymore.

   If we are ordering these systems towards what parents make decisions for, then I am beginning to think that parents ought to pay the freight. Especially as the work continues apace to dismantle and privatize as much of the public school system as possible. I think that the only community responsibility seems to be to just pay for something that works sporadically.

3. Phil says:

   July 7, 2009 at 11:22 am

   Why do people with health care have to pay for people without it? Why do people with jobs have to pay for people without them. (welfare, not UI) Why do people pay so much federal income taxes for benefits they will never get to receive? Why do people pay federal income taxes to fund projects in another state? Why is our money controlled by a private for-profit bank?

   I’d like to know the answer to a lot of these questions.

4. xstryker says:

   July 7, 2009 at 11:29 am

   I would gladly pay some taxes in order to keep those kids off the streets.

5. PBaumbach says:

   July 7, 2009 at 11:40 am

   for the teabaggers, our constitution (not the DoI) states that ‘in order to form a more perfect union’ we wish to provide ‘for the common welfare’ of ‘ourselves and our Posterity.’

   Our country was founded on the principle that we are stronger united than isolated, and this includes pooling our resources for the common good, currently considered such items as public education, affordable healthcare for seniors, national defense, national highways, etc.

6. Another Mike says:

   July 7, 2009 at 11:41 am

   Theoretically I agree with Perry, but Cass and Phil make good points. I have never had a problem with paying school taxes, but I do have a problem when the Brandywine School District can raise my taxes like it did last week. The state legislature needs to pass a law to change the tax rate, but the school board is somehow below that standard. Other than closing two schools, I would like to know where BSD made cuts. Any highly paid administrators get laid off? Is the district now paying two fewer principals, secretaries, custodial staffs, etc.?

   I send my kids to private schools, and I know that is a choice I made and that I would be paying tuition on top of school taxes. However, maybe a graduated tax based on how much a person uses the product would make sense.

7. anon says:

   July 7, 2009 at 11:49 am

   However, maybe a graduated tax based on how much a person uses the product would make sense.

   Anyone who makes enough to pay school taxes and also send their kids to private school is a HUGE user of public education. Without public education, your large income would not be possible.

8. Phil says:

   July 7, 2009 at 11:51 am

   PBaumbach, you got it close. Its promote the welfare, not provide. Those words have completely different meanings.

   National defense and keeping the states from rebelling is one thing, creating social programs was not in the framers minds.

   Public assistance was not the definition of welfare at the time.

   I’m tired of this “living constitution” BS. You’re statement “currently considered” shows me that you believe in that. The constitution is a rigid non bending frame of our government. That is why we can amend it if it needs to be changed. It was never meant to be bent to the whim of whatever political goal was in mind.

9. Phil says:

   July 7, 2009 at 11:54 am

   anon, what if that person was in private institutions their entire life? how would they be a huge user of public education? The department of education is broken. They put too much emphasis on large scale testing and requirements. All this does, is push kids under the wire so that teachers can make their “quotas”.

10. nemski says:

    July 7, 2009 at 12:28 pm

    I don’t use the military, so I shouldn’t have to pay for it.

    What a bunch of hooey!

11. Joanne Christian says:

    July 7, 2009 at 12:30 pm

    Don’t make me come thru the screen and witchslap you all to Jupiter….

    You are never DONE paying for public education. It is never NOT your responsibility. The small amount of money in this state that actually goes to public education garnished in your state and local taxes amounts to a life long annuity paid throughout generations, spread across the ALL of us, to educate the EVERY ONE of us from past to present. Don’t tell me a set of parents in the 1960’s who sent three kids 1-12 to public school (a total of 36 yrs. of education), with busing included, has paid the bill for those 3 kids education just because they graduated. And that would have been a standard family size then. It is perpetuity folks, you may be childless, you may have opted out of public education, but you have benefitted. Whether it’s the neurosurgeon needed, or the architect wanted, it has all begun with public education–and the ubiquitous desire to educate all. Private education to the aside of that, may create an arterial opportunity for a specific child, public education is the entry leveler that may be the springboard for the greatest achievement. Don’t go messin’ w/ the masses!

12. Unstable Isotope says:

    July 7, 2009 at 12:39 pm

    You tell them, Joanne!

13. X Stryker says:

    July 7, 2009 at 12:49 pm

    JC for the win!!!

14. Another Mike says:

    July 7, 2009 at 12:59 pm

    Like I said, I have no problem paying school taxes. It is in everyone’s best interest to have an educated population. These are our future decision-makers and entrepreneurs, so I want them to be well-prepared. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t ask questions and look for ways to make the systems (funding and instruction) better.

    “Anyone who makes enough to pay school taxes and also send their kids to private school is a HUGE user of public education.”

    Thanks for the chuckle. I barely make enough to pay my bills. I work two jobs and my wife one to make this possible, and we receive financial assistance. The belief that all families in private schools are rich is a huge myth.

15. cassandra_m says:

    July 7, 2009 at 1:00 pm

    It is perpetuity folks, you may be childless, you may have opted out of public education, but you have benefitted.

    You may have benefited, but the entire business is being reordered so that is no longer true. Certainly not as much as in the past. And the rallying call for education is parental choice, right? A rallying call that quite deliberately excises the people who pay and don’t have skin in the game. This is the real risk of the rhetoric that wants to leave the business of education decisions to its most interested users rather than to all. If parents are encouraged to think of themselves and make choices for themselves in this process, I wonder why everyone else with no kids in the system should not be encouraged to the same short-sightedness?

16. arthur says:

    July 7, 2009 at 1:02 pm

    I have no problem paying the taxes and i send my kids to private school also and that is my decision. however, what i do have a problem with is paying for all the additional pieces outside of education, ie. sports, clubs, extracurricual activities, etc. I think those are choices made by parents and students and should be paid for by them.

17. Phil says:

    July 7, 2009 at 1:18 pm

    nemski, who said,”I don’t use the military, so I don’t have to pay for it.”

18. nemski says:

    July 7, 2009 at 1:56 pm

    No one Phil, I just think both arguments are just as silly.

19. AnnieMack says:

    July 7, 2009 at 4:10 pm

    My husband and I supplement our granddaughter’s private school education. The first three years spent in public school were a waste. She spent the day listening to the teacher unsuccessfully try to discipline the class and learned virtually nothing, except how to swear. I know there are people who praise a public school education, and maybe it was just this school district, but all three teachers were effectiveless all around. They claimed they had no time to teach because of the behavior problems. Sorry excuse. There are teachers who have very successfully worked around behavior issues. I’d work a second job to keep my granddaughter out of the public school system.

20. DJK says:

    July 7, 2009 at 4:51 pm

    This might be the first smart thing you’ve ever said. But do you pay a school tax? or are schools paid for through your property taxes?

21. Al says:

    July 7, 2009 at 6:23 pm

    To me, this argument carries the same weight as “only property owners should be allowed to vote in school referendums.” Everybody pays, we all benefit. BTW, school taxes and property taxes are two different things here. Both are assessed by the county but the school tax makes up the bulk of the liability.

22. Brian Shields says:

    July 8, 2009 at 9:01 am

    Only here would I see someone try to quote the constitution to promote socialism.

    This was one of the items Wendy Jones mentioned at the SCCOR meeting. Why pay school taxes if you have no kids?

    I would like to add, if you do pay school taxes, they should be allocated directly to the school you are sending them to, private, public, charter, community college, or otherwise.

23. anon says:

    July 8, 2009 at 9:23 am

    I would like to add, if you do pay school taxes, they should be allocated directly to the school you are sending them to, private, public, charter, community college, or otherwise.

    That is not a tax – it is tuition.