And, while it’s not the big ticket other things are,
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More is spent on K-12 education than on the military. This includes local, state, and federal funding.
Our government K-12 schools are sucking the life blood out of our economy. Really they are! Every effort should be made to move to vouchers, tax credits, and charters. We should work toward complete separation of school and state with parents paying for their own kids education with charity schooling for the poorest.
As it is now, citizens are groaning under heavy property taxes. If they rent, the property tax is passed on in the form of higher rents. In my county more than 60% of our property taxes go to fund government K-12 schools. Citizens literally no longer their homes and businesses. The government does. The government is the landlord and we a mere renters.
High property taxes paid by businesses is reflected in the cost of the products made. Everyone in the U.S. pays property taxes. Some pay directly. Others pay though higher rents and in the higher than necessary costs of the goods and services they buy. U.S. made goods are at a disadvantage on the world market. This encourages businesses to relocate outside of the U.S.
One more thing:
Government school accounting practices would make an Enron accountant blush! Double or triple the amount your state claims it spends on K-12 schooling. For instance, in my state, retired school employees are not considered a school expense. They are instead in the “retired government employee” accounting column.
as you can tell from my tagline, I'm all for getting government out of the education business. I'd advocate vouchers...then let the parents decide which school to send their kids to. If they wish to pay more for a high cost school, that is their choice, but with competition, even the basic schools would provide a much better education than the schools do now. And with parents paying direct attention to cost/benefits they would keep the schools honest. If liberals want to indoctrinate their children they can send them to stupid liberals school...but I'd rather pick a quality school that focuses on real education.
In my county more than 60% of our property taxes go to fund government K-12 schools. Citizens literally no longer their homes and businesses. The government does. The government is the landlord and we a mere renters.
I don't know the statistics in the US, but it's getting that way. Even if you were to buy a piece of property, you can't do whatever you want with it...the government zones some land for agriculture, some for business, some for residential, and you don't normally have rights to any minerals found in your land...and if you fail to pay your property taxes they take the land...so really, you're just renting it...except you're responsible for it.