School taxes

[utlong31]

The lotto was supposed to take care of our school system. Where is all that money going?


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[DriftwoodSVT]

The lotto was supposed to take care of our school system. Where is all that money going?

Smoke and mirrors

 

[DaleM]

The lotto was supposed to take care of our school system. Where is all that money going?


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That has been the biggest whotha whatha I have seen.

Me with a mop is like a frog riding a bicycle.

 

[Mojo88]

School tax is crazy here. Over half of my property tax is school tax. I don't have kids either. I don't mind paying into the system, until they pull bullshit I don't approve of.

Likewise. I don't mind paying a 'reasonable' number, but the public sector unions have grown so large and powerful in Rhode Island that our 'services' are no longer controlled by taxpayers, but by the unions. And the ONLY things the unions care about are more money, more benefits and more time off.

Does anyone honestly think that the union heads are sitting around contemplating how they can improve the education for our kids? LOL... the union heads are only thinking about money and benefits for the teachers, and police and firefighters, etc. They don't give a crap about taxpayers. It's fiscal rape. It's a new modernized version of slavery... call it "slavery 2.0", where they don't punish you physically, they punish you fiscally.

 

[Stanger00]

Likewise. I don't mind paying a 'reasonable' number, but the public sector unions have grown so large and powerful in Rhode Island that our 'services' are no longer controlled by taxpayers, but by the unions. And the ONLY things the unions care about are more money, more benefits and more time off.

Does anyone honestly think that the union heads are sitting around contemplating how they can improve the education for our kids? LOL... the union heads are only thinking about money and benefits for the teachers, and police and firefighters, etc. They don't give a crap about taxpayers. It's fiscal rape. It's a new modernized version of slavery... call it "slavery 2.0", where they don't punish you physically, they punish you fiscally.

This post didn't take long to show up.

So, what you're saying is everyone in the private job market who starts to earn more money and drive the cost of living up that teachers don't deserve more pay and cheaper benefits?

Got it.

You think teachers are overpaid? That's funny. I believe state college level professors are overpaid but not teachers.


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[DMassey]

67% of our property taxes go to the school system. It's a tax I don't mind paying as long as it's used properly. Unfortunately, we're recently had some high level Board of Education employees/adminstrators do some jail time due to gross misuse of funds while teachers have had to take pay cuts and school resources funding getting slashed.

 

[MFE]

Devils advocate here

Our states ‘no child left behind’ caters to the ‘slower learners’ that are just not as adept as the rest of us, which in turn slows down the curriculum for everyone else. This program i do not support....and i would not want to contribute to. If a child is having learning difficulties they should have extra tutoring before or after school, not slow down the entire class.

What say ye?

Couldn't agree more, but NCLB is a Federal, not State mandate, and you can blame GWB for that fiasco.

 

[MFE]

I thought no child left behind meant more resources for IEPs, individual education plan, in which parents and challenging students could gradually help that student instead of failing them based on a system that tries to define the student as lazy, stupid, or retarded.

As an example. My oldest boy is autistic, now Asperger's. When he was just getting into school he was placed in a severe handi cap classroom. If you know anything much about kids, especially autistic kids is the mimic those around them. The best thing I did for him was to fight to mainstream him with the IEP provisions. He went in to finish highschool and had a scholarship that unfortunately his mom did not follow through on.

It's also to help non-english speakers and the not-so-smart pass the tests, but education funding is largely a zero-sum game, and the funding to support ensuring little Johnny Windowlicker passes the test comes from things that don't affect The Test. Things like advanced classes, gifted-student programs, music, arts, and athletics. NCLB effectively means putting a wet blanket on higher-achieving students and enrichment programs.

 

[Zemedici]

I thought no child left behind meant more resources for IEPs, individual education plan, in which parents and challenging students could gradually help that student instead of failing them based on a system that tries to define the student as lazy, stupid, or retarded.

As an example. My oldest boy is autistic, now Asperger's. When he was just getting into school he was placed in a severe handi cap classroom. If you know anything much about kids, especially autistic kids is the mimic those around them. The best thing I did for him was to fight to mainstream him with the IEP provisions. He went in to finish highschool and had a scholarship that unfortunately his mom did not follow through on.

Me with a mop is like a frog riding a bicycle.

Yes it includes those things, but also changes to the curriculum so ‘everyone can keep up with, even the slow learners’

Which screws everyone.

 

[sleek98]

I am paying roughly 5,200 a year in real estate tax that goes to the school. I don't mind it as we have great schools and that is what keeps our property values higher than other towns near us.

 

[earico]

I feel your pain. School taxes in TX are out of control, largely due to Public Education being under funded by the Legislature. They rely on the school district to make up the difference.

My school district (DSISD) has more dept per student than 93% of the school districts in TX, yet the voters just passed a $130 million bond. On top of that the district is planning a $400 million bond in 3 years.

I already pay $13,400 in property tax, the majority being school tax. Can't wait to see how much worse it gets. There's a reason people in TX are taxed out of their homes.

To clarify further, I pay 2.12% property tax, and from that, 1.52% is school tax.

Yep pretty much the same exact thing and numbers for me too. $1k a month. I have 2 highshoolers in the system though. In about 8 years I'm moving out in the country in 1 county over and my taxes will be much less. You can find pockets in TX where the school tax is about half of what we are paying now. I don't mind paying it as someone already said it's for the future of our state and country.

Gotta love that we don't have state income taxes though.

 

[Klaus]

Money well spent. You get the uplift in property value and communities with better schools have lower crime, as well. Which means you do not have to spend as much on policing.

Speaking of, it is police and fire that really chap my ass. I live in a well off suburb and we have a SWAT team. I had a minor break in on my property by some HS kids and they sent 4 cars and a CSI team. The lieutenant stopped in to check on their work. The fire dept just built a palace of a fire house. Give me a break. Try to give teachers a 2% raise though and people go apeshit.

 

[AustinSN]

Yeah it's worth it.

 

[black4vcobra]

I just checked and I paid almost exactly 1% of the assessed value of my home in taxes that go towards the Madison school district. My wife and I have no children.

While i'm as anti-tax as they come but i also understand that we want a literate society who have opportunities and ability to provide for themselves.

What gets me is that I pay that much and we have subpar schools. "Urban" schools often get more funding per child than suburban schools yet provide much, much lower quality of education, just shows that it takes more than money to fix problems. Also what gets me is the constant referendums, Act 10 in this state gave school districts the flexibility to make employees contribute more towards their pensions/healthcare yet some school districts do not utilitize it. Then next year they say they need more money for salaries/maintenance/new buildings, etc.

Also, i don't understand why we are contributing towards technical colleges. do students not pay to go there? I paid state taxes and paid for my tuition at a state school, why am i subsidizing a local technical college?

Most likely you are paying them either directly or indirectly. What are your thoughts on this? Should you be required to pay them if you have no kids or kids who are no longer in the public school system? I'm actually on the fence with this.

What are your alternate ideas of schools being funded? Parents having to pay for their children to goto school? Is the payment income based then? Or higher state property taxes and the state gets to decide where the money goes?

In Vegas the cost for schools could potentially be put on tourism/gambling but most areas of the country do not have a cash cow like that.

 

[MDShelby]

Between "maintenance of effort" required by the state and the county "tax cap", this is a hot topic in my area.

 

[Black2010]

I feel your pain. School taxes in TX are out of control, largely due to Public Education being under funded by the Legislature. They rely on the school district to make up the difference.

My school district (DSISD) has more dept per student than 93% of the school districts in TX, yet the voters just passed a $130 million bond. On top of that the district is planning a $400 million bond in 3 years.

I already pay $13,400 in property tax, the majority being school tax. Can't wait to see how much worse it gets. There's a reason people in TX are taxed out of their homes.

To clarify further, I pay 2.12% property tax, and from that, 1.52% is school tax.

I feel your pain but it's 3.2% here... I don't mind it except for the blatant waste of money and the constant "bonds" for more money which keep raising things. Examples:

- Text books - My wife teaches in district. She's worked at 3 different schools over the last 15 years. Only one of those schools (her first) even used text books and yet they buy new books every year or two. I volunteer to help at the end of the year and 90% of these books have never been opened that the district either donates or recycles. TOTAL WASTE.

- Sports - They built a stadium that would make most college (and even pro) teams envious for the football team. I've asked this before and the answer is always, "The football team brings in money to the school and that is where a lot of that cash came from." So, why can't some of that income go to help pay for the wasted books or give teachers and staff raises, etc... Which leads to the next point.

- Budget Surplus - The rules is "you use it of you lose it." Departments will buy all kinds of crap they don't need if they have a surplus because they don't want to lose it nor do they want their budget cut the next year because it looked like they didn't need that much. Why can't surplus funds go into an account that can be divided out to those with shortages vs needing bonds or budget increases to cover necessary things (like the arts programs).

I could keep going but this gets me worked up to much. The waste is the problem. And before you say it, Yes, I'm trying to get on the board to start to fight this crap but as you can imagine getting voted in with my viewpoints doesn't exactly fit in well with my specific location.

 

[HillbillyHotRod]

Now if they would just fix the low achieving schools. Just throwing money at it does not cut it.

 

[DaleM]

Money well spent. You get the uplift in property value and communities with better schools have lower crime, as well. Which means you do not have to spend as much on policing.

Speaking of, it is police and fire that really chap my ass. I live in a well off suburb and we have a SWAT team. I had a minor break in on my property by some HS kids and they sent 4 cars and a CSI team. The lieutenant stopped in to check on their work. The fire dept just built a palace of a fire house. Give me a break. Try to give teachers a 2% raise though and people go apeshit.

The same people bitchin seem to forget they were a child in school once. Pay it forward.

Me with a mop is like a frog riding a bicycle.

 

[earico]

I feel your pain but it's 3.2% here... I don't mind it except for the blatant waste of money and the constant "bonds" for more money which keep raising things. Examples:

- Text books - My wife teaches in district. She's worked at 3 different schools over the last 15 years. Only one of those schools (her first) even used text books and yet they buy new books every year or two. I volunteer to help at the end of the year and 90% of these books have never been opened that the district either donates or recycles. TOTAL WASTE.

- Sports - They built a stadium that would make most college (and even pro) teams envious for the football team. I've asked this before and the answer is always, "The football team brings in money to the school and that is where a lot of that cash came from." So, why can't some of that income go to help pay for the wasted books or give teachers and staff raises, etc... Which leads to the next point.

- Budget Surplus - The rules is "you use it of you lose it." Departments will buy all kinds of crap they don't need if they have a surplus because they don't want to lose it nor do they want their budget cut the next year because it looked like they didn't need that much. Why can't surplus funds go into an account that can be divided out to those with shortages vs needing bonds or budget increases to cover necessary things (like the arts programs).

I could keep going but this gets me worked up to much. The waste is the problem. And before you say it, Yes, I'm trying to get on the board to start to fight this crap but as you can imagine getting voted in with my viewpoints doesn't exactly fit in well with my specific location.

You're trying to dbl check budget math in the heart of Liberalville, TX? Not even the most complex differential equation can help you!

 

[Coiled03]

This is one tax I don’t mind, the children are our future...we will reap what we sow.

Agreed.

Teach them well and let them lead the way.

Don’t forget to show them all the beauty they possess inside.

Damn you.

LOL....this place slays me sometimes.

On topic, I hate taxes....****ing HATE them. But there are a select few that are necessary. This is one of them.

The trouble comes when we can't all agree on which are necessary, and which are just socialist bullshit.