I am also from Texas, but 30 years ago I came here from New Jersey. At that time they were debating the same issue they are debating today. How to fund schools without using property taxes. They got the Legislature to pass an income tax by telling people their property taxes would go down. They also passed the lottery to fund education. They then passed legalized gambling for Atlantic City. Here we are in 2005 and they are looking for another way to give education more money to spend with another method of taxation. BTW property taxes haven't gone down. The income tax has gone steadily upward, and even though I live in Texas, I pay income tax on the house I inherited from my parents which my 84 year old Uncle still lives in in NJ., inaddition to property taxes.
Oh, yes, I forgot about the sales tax.
My point is this, they've tried all of the methods of taxation on the East Coast. Unless the legislature in Texas is really, really, creative, how else do you think we can fund our education system?
It seems to me that it's like pounding sand into a rat hole.
I've spent 40 years as a certified Secondary Teacher. I'm licensed to teach and have taught in both New Jersey and Texas. I taught ESL in Texas. I had no books, no room to teach in, and no curriculum. I had nothing. I bought my own materials, and created my own curriculum. This was in 1994. The school system was also paying me less than a beginning teacher was paid since I hadn't received my certification in ESL as of yet. The teaching situation at my High School was pathetic. Science teachers didn't have enough books. There wasn't enough money for the basics, yet the Administration building was a 5 story Taj Mahal complete with any number of bureaucrats all filling out paper work for unfunded Federally mandated educational programs. That's where your tax money is going. Compare the size of the bureaucracy today with what it was in 1965 when I first started teaching. I bet it's 100 times larger.
Why? Because the Federal Government got involved. I don't believe we even had a Federal department of Education in '65. The class rooms haven't changed all that much. Throw in a few computers, throw out the Pledge of Alligence and you have a class room in 2005. Kids today aren't as educated as they were in '65. We're just spending a whole lot more money on things that don't benefit the student.
Voting for democrats isn't going to help. They're the reason we're in the mess we're in. They controlled Texas and the Federal governmet for over 60 years. I sometimes think we have to wipe out the entire system and start over. All you need for a good education is a willing student and a person willing to teach with mutual respect, and everything else is secondary.
Most of the cost of education in personell. Most school districts average one administrator per teacher. The average administrator pay is three times the average teacher pay. The solution to funding education is right there.
Voting for democrats isn't going to help. They're the reason we're in the mess we're in. They controlled Texas and the Federal governmet for over 60 years.
Damning the democrats again isn't productive. We all know what they are. And they are out of power anyway. But the republicans are merely perpetuating the democrat's policies, and doing something the democrats never dared to do: Introduce an income tax under the cover of darkness.
The democrats created a problem. The republicans are escalating it into a crisis. They are essentially proposing to accelerate an already exploding tax burden, and throw even more cash at schools whose primary problem is too much cash. Yes, you read that right. The problem with schools is that there is so much money involved that they are attracting con artists into school administration. No school superintendent is worth half a million a year given the abysmally low quality of the education product.
School administration is a complete failure. They spend tens of millions on extravagant buildings and salaries for administrators, and shortchange teachers and classrooms.
Wisconsin is also neck deep in the property tax debate. First, the income tax was going to offset the property tax...but prop taxes kept going up....then the increased sales tax....still, property taxes went up....the lottery....didn't do a darn thing...the school aid forumula changes...still taxes went up. Unless there are strict, and as the opposition likes to call them "artificial" spending controls on our elected officials, they will spend and spend and spend some more. And that includes those Republicans who like to mostly pretend they are for limited government. In Wisconsin we are trying to get the weak-willed lawmakers to get serious about the constitutional Wisconsin Taxpayer Bill of Rights"...which limits spending to the rate of inflation plus new growth. Which means, every year the government gets to spend MORE, just up to a certain point. Can't get any lawmakers serious about getting it done. Here in Madison, the culture of tax and spend and don't ask questions is so overwhelming that our school district which has spent MORE money for fewer students, hired MORE staff for fewer studetns...and opened and built MORE facilities for fewer students....is back with their hand out, demanding more money for the kids. Nevermind that around 90% of the total operating budget costs if for salaries and benefits. It's for the kids! Can't pay your taxes? Sorry, remember as you sell your home because you can't pay those taxes that it's for the kids.