I read an article

[dmccarty]

I will willing pay more taxes for my kid's education and allow others to not pay for education, if the following also applies:

• We get to pick which school my kids attended.
• People who do not pay for education expenses have NO input on running, paying for, and managing the schools.
• Taxes paid by my kids are reduced and not used to support old people's tax payer supported retirements, both local, state and federal.
• Taxes paid by my kids are reduced and not used to support old people's health care who receive taxpayer support at the local, state and federal level.
• My kids do not have to pay higher health care premiums in government mandated health care to subsidize older people's health care expenses.

Later,
Dan

 

[fordmantpw]

If we didn't ALL fund the schools, then there are countless children who would never be able to get an education. Fact of life. Everyone deserves at least a high-school education, and we should all pay for it because it benefits society as a whole. If those kids didn't go to school, we've have to pay higher taxes for cops to keep them off the streets and more for prisons to keep them there.

Schools are expensive, yes, but they are cheaper than the alternative. Hey, I send my kids to private school (that I pay for) and I STILL pay school taxes. There are many more taxes to complain about than school taxes.

PS - I'm all for lowering taxes, but I typically vote for school tax increases when they come up (assuming I feel they are for a good cause) because better schools benefits everyone.

 

[dmccarty]

If we didn't ALL fund the schools, then there are countless children who would never be able to get an education. Fact of life. Everyone deserves at least a high-school education, and we should all pay for it because it benefits society as a whole. If those kids didn't go to school, we've have to pay higher taxes for cops to keep them off the streets and more for prisons to keep them there.

Schools are expensive, yes, but they are cheaper than the alternative. Hey, I send my kids to private school (that I pay for) and I STILL pay school taxes. There are many more taxes to complain about than school taxes.

PS - I'm all for lowering taxes, but I typically vote for school tax increases when they come up (assuming I feel they are for a good cause) because better schools benefits everyone.

That is all very true. Education taxes is one tax that I mostly get the most for my money. Having said that, I know there is HUGE waste in our education systems but that is really a different discussion.

Later,
Dan

 

[kcflhrc]

I'm not sure how these threads get so off track from the original post but let me add this. My wife is an Elementary Level Para Educator. She works with children with learning disabilities and other disabilities. Is there waste in the education system, probably. But it's not wasted on salaries. There are some children that have a Para Educator assigned to them all day long. That's 1 Para for one 1 child all day long. My personal opinion, those kids shouldn't be in public schools. But their parents, think they should be. Why? Becuase they don't want their kid to go to a "Special School". It's a bunch of BS if you ask me.

 

[Texas Dawg]

. Is there waste in the education system, probably. But it's not wasted on salaries.

My mother taught for 30 years in the public school system and my wife for 10 before switching over to a private school. I agree that the money is not wasted on salaries..at the classroom level. There is however massive waste once you move above that level. As with most government entities, the levels of bureaucracy and their inefficiencies is mind boggling and never ending.

 

[dmccarty]

I recently read a column by a woman who was explaining why she chose to have no children. She said her mother got pregnant with her and did her motherly duty and raised her until she turned eighteen and started college. Since that day she had very little contact with her mother, maybe three or four times a year. Her mother wasn't hateful to her or anything but had gone back to work full time, trying to make up for the years she had 'lost' while raising her daughter. This lady said her mother once told her how much further she could have gone in the business world if she hadn't got pregnant and had to give up her career for so many years raising a child. Said she could have been rich and powerful. Said she could have become "somebody" So the author made up her mind to never have children and instead to make something of herself in the world. She searched for and married a man who, like her, did not want children but instead wanted to concentrate on being a success in business and on being rich and powerful. The lady told how her and her husband were now wealthy and took long vacations and trips around the world dining in exotic places the 'normal' person never got to see.

...

Sometimes people make decisions not realizing what the really important things are in the world. Or maybe the really important things don't become apparent until one is older and cannot change the direction of their life. Age comes on us and suddenly the little things become the important things. Our mortality becomes apparent to us and cry of "Granna" or "Granddaddy" becomes more precious than gold.

And as I think of that poor selfish woman sitting in her mansion all I can feel is pity.

RSKY

I feel sorry for her too.

Not because she did not have kids but because:

• A mother told her child that she, the mom, would have been a success if NOT FOR YOU, the child. How did that make the kid feel? I think we can see...
• That any parent would think raising a child is not important and that being a good parent is not being successful.
• Making money and having a "name" is more important, ie more successful, than raising children. As stressful as my careers can be, NOTHING is as difficult, stressful or as IMPORTANT as raising my kids.
• The child then seems to chase her MOTHER's dream instead of her own dreams.
• Said child is also looking for the love of a mother that does not seem to exist.
• It is sad if the woman, the child, did not want kids because her mother did not want children.
• That a child and mother only have contact a few times a year.
• There appears to be no father.

Later,
Dan

 

[davesl708]

If we didn't ALL fund the schools, then there are countless children who would never be able to get an education. Fact of life. Everyone deserves at least a high-school education, and we should all pay for it because it benefits society as a whole. If those kids didn't go to school, we've have to pay higher taxes for cops to keep them off the streets and more for prisons to keep them there.

Schools are expensive, yes, but they are cheaper than the alternative. Hey, I send my kids to private school (that I pay for) and I STILL pay school taxes. There are many more taxes to complain about than school taxes.

PS - I'm all for lowering taxes, but I typically vote for school tax increases when they come up (assuming I feel they are for a good cause) because better schools benefits everyone.

I agree to the benefits of education for all. However, to blindly pay more taxes for public education is part of the problem with the US public education system. We pay far more to administer education that to educate.
I always here the story "teachers need to be paid more to do a better job". Here in my school district teacher average pay is >$67k per year. A librarian can earn >100k. My friend who has taught 5th grade in the same room for 29 years earns $80k per year.
This puts her in the top 5% of wage earners in the USA. We pay over $12k per student per year. 100 million for a junior high for 300 students. Were now paying for breakfast and lunch for kids. We plan to start paying for weekend meals too. Next we will be buying the kids clothes and toys (we already pay for computers to take home).

Tax increases always start with "the children need more". Maybe if the administration was not paying themselves well above the national average and treating themselves to trips and outing for team building the kids would get more.
Teachers work 185 days out of the standard 252 day work year. My friend works less than 8hrs per day.
My standard work year is 300 days per year and a standard 10hr day.$80k would have been great.

Education yes but stop and take a long look at where the money is going. The US has fallen to 13th in the world for education. We pay more and get less.

As to having children, far to many have children to get welfare money. Have four children and go on welfare you can easily get $3000 per month in cash and benefits.

Maybe we need a means test before people can have children.
My main rant is my taxes keep going up to pay for raising children not educating children.

 

[wcampbell47]

Everyone deserves at least a high-school education, and we should all pay for it because it benefits society as a whole.

I can agree with the first part of this statement, but would like to see some statistics on the second part. That could open up a whole range of things I would like to see change in our country.

- rework the anchor baby law to slow the number of illegal immigrants that come into the country to have babies so they can claim US citizenship for the sole purpose getting on welfare.
- rework the welfare laws to limit support to one child if the mother was born after the year 2000. Any one can make a mistake, but 8 kids later it is no mistake.

To quote Colonel West "promote the welfare of the country NOT provide the welfare of the country". The leaders of this country are going to have to take some radical steps to control spending and pay down the huge deficit spending we have. All we are doing is making life miserable for our grandchildren. That is morally not acceptable.

 

[ch1ch2]

I think this thread was HI-JACKED.
School taxes is not the topic. But since we are on it; 75% of my state and local taxes go to schools. Schools can find many ways to waste money. They always want more. If they get resistance they cut funding to emotional areas. Never to administrators, administration staff. Only areas that get emotional responses for those poor kids. I think my taxes need to be reduced.

 

[davesl708]

I can agree with the first part of this statement, but would like to see some statistics on the second part. That could open up a whole range of things I would like to see change in our country.

- rework the anchor baby law to slow the number of illegal immigrants that come into the country to have babies so they can claim US citizenship for the sole purpose getting on welfare.
- rework the welfare laws to limit support to one child if the mother was born after the year 2000. Any one can make a mistake, but 8 kids later it is no mistake.

To quote Colonel West "promote the welfare of the country NOT provide the welfare of the country". The leaders of this country are going to have to take some radical steps to control spending and pay down the huge deficit spending we have. All we are doing is making life miserable for our grandchildren. That is morally not acceptable.

Absolutely correct. The salaries of public officials is publicly available for any district. What they spend and where it is spent is available too. Most people don't look at it or don't care.
In Kansas City Missouri school district they were paying $16k per month on cab service to pick students up and take them home.

Anchor babies are a huge problem. Chinese women are coming here on vacation and stay till their baby is born then stay to raise them. Other countries are catching on and doing the same.

As to the debt. The interest payments could just about pay for the education or medical in this country.