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As an owner of multiple properties, I am paying a LOT of property tax every year - and a HUGE chunk of that property tax goes to our public schools. I think the question is simply why the public schools automatically get that money. Why shouldn't private/parochial/charter schools get that money if they're the ones who are providing a good education, and public schools aren't cutting the mustard. Why can't EVERY school simply be reimbursed on a per-student basis?
There IS no one-to-one connection between receipts and expenditures. Your property taxes are simply the bill for your share of all services provided by your local government entity. Your taxes and those of all your neighbors are comingled into a single pot. Money comes out of that pot according to allocations made by your local board or legislators. Private and parochial schools are not services provided by local government. Hence, they receive (and deserve) no allocation.
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Originally Posted by JeffreySH
I've got a very close friend who is an English professor. He and I have some rather fun discussions about this. I think the competition, provided by a voucher system, would be a GOOD thing. He's not at all convinced of that.
As there is no significant evidence that confirms the hypothesis, there is no reason to be convinced of it. Despite best-case scenarios that voucher proponents skim off the top and then call representative, the broad-based evidence is that voucher schools do not perform better than public schools, and that public schools do not perform better in the presence of voucher schools. In brief, what has been delivered by voucher schools has been far, far short of what had been promised.
What exactly is your point? He made himself what he is today, and had his share of struggles... do you believe people need to meet a check-list of "middle-class credentials" before they can understand life? He's gone through more than I personally have, so he is more "common" than this average American citizen!
My point is that it is very different being a struggling college student verses a struggling family. I am not talking about going through things I am taking about the responsibly you have when you do. If a person if only responsible for themselves the decisions they make effect only them but when you have a family it is very different.
Once again, what is your point? You keep getting more and more specific in an attempt to prove your point, although I'm still not sure what that is. OK, so he's never been unable to feed his children, and was only middle-class until his 40s... isn't that representative of a HUGE percentage of Americans? We aren't a third-world country - yet - so most of us haven't experienced quite the hardships you seem to think. Regardless, he's had a much less privileged life than George W.
He struggled as a college student not as a family man two very different things. He can not relate to a father of 3, working two jobs, and still not making it. I am well aware that almost every President came from privilege my issue is when he says he knows what "middle" class families are going through because he does not, he has never been there.
Did you complain about McCain never having been poor? Or GWB? If you did I haven't seen it.
I am not complaining I just said that he does not nor has he ever lived as a "middle" class family man so he has no clue what it is all about. I don't begrudge him his success I just don't believe that he knows what a "middle" class family is dealing with nowadays.
So here's my pondering, chin-scratching question... How quickly might things improve (such as public schools, social security, etc.) if our elected officials had to live like the rest of us?
Members of Congress pay into Social Security just as you do. They are subject to the same 401-k rules as you are. They may choose to send their kids to private schools (and pay for it) just as you may.
He struggled as a college student not as a family man two very different things. He can not relate to a father of 3, working two jobs, and still not making it. I am well aware that almost every President came from privilege my issue is when he says he knows what "middle" class families are going through because he does not, he has never been there.
At least he's attuned to these problems, unlike Bush or McCain. As a community organizer he saw some pretty rough existence, even if he didn't live through it personally. He wants to give a middle class tax break, protect jobs, wants families to become closer, encourages community service.
Maybe he didnt raise his children the way you describe, but what isn't empathetic about these plans?
But you're right about the irony of the whole situation. Our nation's capital city is one of the single worst cities - in virtually every category - in the entire nation. Kind of like having a morbidly obese personal fitness instructor...
Upon what evidence do you base this absurd claim? Have you been doing research inside the Beltway, or are these conclusions that you are able to draw from a thousand miles away?
Members of Congress pay into Social Security just as you do. They are subject to the same 401-k rules as you are. They may choose to send their kids to private schools (and pay for it) just as you may.
You need to look more closely at the benefits members of Congress give themselves.
Upon what evidence do you base this absurd claim? Have you been doing research inside the Beltway, or are these conclusions that you are able to draw from a thousand miles away?
He struggled as a college student not as a family man two very different things. He can not relate to a father of 3, working two jobs, and still not making it. I am well aware that almost every President came from privilege my issue is when he says he knows what "middle" class families are going through because he does not, he has never been there.
I think I just discovered why no politicians are paying attention to the working poor anymore. No one any longer CALLS themselves the working class or the working poor. EVERYONE now calls themselves the middle class. WHY? There is nothing to be ashamed of being working class. But a father of 3 working 2 jobs and not making it is NOT middle class. He is working class. I have heard people making 20k a year describe themselves as middle class and people making 900k a year describe themselves as middle class. Neither is true. Obama has never claimed to be working class. He has described his life as middle class prior to the publishing of his books. He was middle class. He is no longer middle class. He wasn't working class but would probably have good ideas on how to help the working class if anyone would claim ownership in that economic group.
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He made himself what he is today, and had his share of struggles... do you believe people need to meet a check-list of "middle-class credentials" before they can understand life? He's gone through more than I personally have, so he is more "common" than this average American citizen! 
