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The Gaffer's Philosophy:
Part 56: Education Financing 1:
June 23, 2003:
The question arises, how do we pay for all of this wonderful education.
Before we answer that, we must decide how important education
is. I have already decided that educating our kids is more important
than any other community or governmental function. So here is
my take. First we fund education at whatever level is necessary.
Whatever is left can go for other things. We will have to set
priorities accordingly. That is my hard line on funding. Take
it or leave it.
There is a truth many of us like to ignore. Everyone benefits from education through reduced crime, reduced accidents, and reduced consequences of ignorance, like ill health. This truth is often ignored by older people who have no kids in school. They like to pretend that the benefits of education are all for other people. So in school millage elections, they are likely to vote against rather than for.
Ofttimes they justify this position by revealing the caprice of school boards in their spending policies. There is no doubt that many school boards and administrators take a rather cavalier attitude toward taxpayer's money. I recall attending one school board meeting in the Brandon school district of Michigan. They seemed not to know I was there or to think I was on their side. I don't know which.
Anyhow, they had a sudden extremely large windfall which would continue into future years because of a change in local assessment practices. All they could talk about was how to spend that money on whatever they could. It never occurred to them to ask if it was necessary or useful. In never occurred to them to propose a decrease in millage for the following year. Not at all. In fact, the very next year, having spent all of that unexpected surplus, they were out talking poor mouth and demanding an increase in millage.
That was one situation. At the other extreme many local systems have degenerated terribly and need to be brought up to speed. These are mostly big city systems and systems in the south. There is no use trying to affix blame. There is more than enough blame to go around, for the citizens, the school boards, the administrators, and the students. After all the blame, the problem remains. Fixing it will cost money. Not fixing it will cost even more in the long run. I am not making revelations here. Everyone knows this.
There is much we can do to deal with the problem of financing. I have already suggested that we need to enlist the parents in sharing the burden of education. I have also pointed out that there are many qualified people who are not being used because of certification silliness. These are people who can and should be used. In addition a great deal of educational money is being wasted in competitive athletic programs. These have no place in education and should not be publicly funded. The people who want these programs must fund them privately.
Also, our educational systems must stop taking money from corporations with vested interests in exploiting the kids. We must stop selling our kids out to these junk peddlers. We cannot allow these greedy monsters to condition our kids. We must stop all forms of conditioning and begin educating. The communities and citizens must begin to pay the full cost of education.
So, when all is said and done we still need to finance education at a higher level than we have in the past. Also we must have a better more reliable way of financing education. I am convinced that lotteries are dishonest. The government's financing should never depend on exploiting human pathology. It is unconscionable on the face of it. We need a more honest and equitable method than that. This means some kind of tax.
No tax is really fair because all taxes punish good citizenship. It would only be fair if there were no bad citizen freeloaders. However, taxes are necessary and the least punitive tax must be an income tax. At least it is based on ability to pay. Punishing property owners is terribly wrong. In addition, that kind of funding creates huge discrepancies in our educational system.
I believe k-12 school funding is something that must stem from the federal level. I do not suggest this lightly. Though it is often necessary, I fear the federal involvement in any phase of our lives. I am especially fearful when that involvement has to do with funding. Al the same, the goal is to fund education equally for all children in all locations. We cannot short change our kids just because some state and local governments are controlled by criminals. In the past I have been wrong about this. I believe the federal government must be involved. Disparity in education must be eliminated and I see no way to do that at the local level. It must be a tax at the federal level to circumvent the situation of poor and wealthy school districts.
I must make it clear that I see nothing wrong with local control of schools. Schools should be run at the local level, but they should be financed from the federal level. We need a special separate educational tax much like the social security tax. It must be separate from the general fund. It must be administered separately by an Educational Financing Authority. It must be separate from any political manipulation or influence.
The only thing the federal government should be allowed to do is collect the tax. It must be distribute through an independent Educational Financing Authority so the swine in D.C. cannot get their hands on it. It must never become part of the federal budget. It must be a completely separate fund. It must be distributed based strictly on enrollment. It must never be played with the way social security is.
In addition to the personal income education tax, corporations must be made heavy contributors to the fund. We all benefit, but they are the ones who benefit most directly from an educated populace. The day of the well paid ditch digger is past. Corporate America needs educated workers. They must be willing to pay part of the cost of that education.
This essay outlines my major ideas for financing of education
in America. In a follow up essay, I will go into some of the other
areas that are influenced by financing.
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