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Nbres, Surely you are the one who is misinformed. Are you on drugs? If it is true that I am undertaxed, and that my school district's taxes are also lower, then why the heck am I paying almost $20,000 in taxes on a 23-year-old house, on a 1/3 acre lot? Many of my immediate neighbors pay a lot more than that. Why do the taxes decrease by thousands as soon as the line between my district and its neighboring districts is crossed?
You seem to ignore the fact that the busing goes both ways. Not only will kids from the "lesser" districts find their way into the "better" districts, but some of the kids from the better districts could find their way into the lesser districts. Busing to achieve racial balance(however unpopular) has been legally (and sometimes aggressively) practiced across the country. Unless a county-wide consolidation was structured to have your kids attend neighborhood schools (and absolutely no guarantee that it would be) kids in Levittown could wind up attending schools in Roosevelt. Tell me, then, who would pick up what skills from who in that situation? And how wonderful would you feel about having your kids in that environment?
Finally, would you trust the people that run Nassau County now to run a county-wide school district?
Yes, I acknowledge that this can happen and I don't believe that would be fair.. BUT if they structured the consolidation in such a way that would prevent that from happenning, it could work.
Nbres, Surely you are the one who is misinformed. Are you on drugs? If it is true that I am undertaxed, and that my school district's taxes are also lower, then why the heck am I paying almost $20,000 in taxes on a 23-year-old house, on a 1/3 acre lot? Many of my immediate neighbors pay a lot more than that. Why do the taxes decrease by thousands as soon as the line between my district and its neighboring districts is crossed?
Simple.. because the value of the home goes down.. duh.. but the amount per assessed dollars are sometimes lower in high end neighborhoods. etc. IT also depends on how much commercial property exists in that district.
Nbres, Surely you are the one who is misinformed. Are you on drugs? If it is true that I am undertaxed, and that my school district's taxes are also lower, then why the heck am I paying almost $20,000 in taxes on a 23-year-old house, on a 1/3 acre lot? Many of my immediate neighbors pay a lot more than that. Why do the taxes decrease by thousands as soon as the line between my district and its neighboring districts is crossed?
1. Where is your home located? What school district?
If people want to live in an "exclusive" school district and can afford it, they should be allowed to do so. PizzaPedro
Not on my tax dollar. If your district gets any state or federal funding than I should have the right to also send my kids to your "exclusive" district since I pay state and federal taxes.
If you want an "exclusive" educational setting then send your kids to private school and I have no complaints, but to pretend that somehow barring kids from a public school education is fair based on your logic is totally wrong.
Every child should have equal access to a quality education and if they are not getting it in their district then they should be allowed to attend another school in another district. With consolidation students and parents would have greater choice. It is not the fault of the children if their parents are poor and can not afford to live in your "exclusive" school district. They, poor kids, too deserve a quality education provided by a public education system funded with all of our tax dollars.
Tell me again about why I pay more taxes than you please.Glad2BHere
Senior Member
I don't know. Sounds to me like your getting ripped off. Is your school doing any better of a job of educating your children than my kids.
I mean if my kid goes to a poorer district and graduates with very high SAT scores, AP Courses, etc.. and gets into a good or great college with a full scholarship while paying half the property taxes you did then who is getting a better deal?
You really can't buy an education for your kids, they have to earn it.
I attribute them to lack of parenting at home, for one. But primarily I think a lot has to do with english not being the first language of either the students OR more improtantly the parents at home. Environment does play a role ,and in a neighborhood where both parents are working 2 or 3 min wage jobs and hte student has to work to contribute to pay bills, their school work will suffer.
Yes.. bussing them to privledge schools may or may not help their education.. the argument is moer about how they will affect YOUR son/daughter and overall education in the school as a whole and I don't think that a few underpriveldged students mixed in will effect the overall performance of the neighborhood school.
What is your definition of a "few"?
Next School budget session in Levittown, go there and suggest consolidating with Hempstead or Uniondale and see what your fellow citizens think. Ask the school board how much money will be saved by consolidating.
As I've said before, my high school is in a centralized district, and we are not saving a dime. It is still over bloated with administrators.
More nonesense. Your district doesn't tax at any higher a rate than others and may even tax less.
How do you know this? Each district sets it own tax rate based on school expenses divided by assessed values.
If they do tax less, its probably due to the fact that many exclusive north shore communities (I'm thinking Old Westbury, OLd Brookville etc) are smaller with less kid population. Each kid in a town is a 15K tax "drain" going to the schools. Areas with poorer people tend to have more kids as those who can least afford it tend to multiply more. Add to the fact that there are more houses on smaller lots in poorer areas that increases the density of people with those "costly" children and increases the tax liability for that community.
Your argument about property taxes being regressive compared to an income tax is true in my opinion, but I don't see it being changed anytime soon.
How do you know this? Each district sets it own tax rate based on school expenses divided by assessed values.
If they do tax less, its probably due to the fact that many exclusive north shore communities (I'm thinking Old Westbury, OLd Brookville etc) are smaller with less kid population. Each kid in a town is a 15K tax "drain" going to the schools. Areas with poorer people tend to have more kids as those who can least afford it tend to multiply more. Add to the fact that there are more houses on smaller lots in poorer areas that increases the density of people with those "costly" children and increases the tax liability for that community.
Your argument about property taxes being regressive compared to an income tax is true in my opinion, but I don't see it being changed anytime soon.
Some of those multi-million dollar homes only pay $20,000 in taxes. Sounds like a lot, but not compared to the guy in Levittown paying almost $10,000 on his little cape. The property tax system is totally out of whack.
Look.. if consolidating School districts and shuffling kids OUT of the neighborhood schools to other neighborhood schools happens (like a Roslyn Student going to say Roosevelt.. although that's pretty far and most likely wouldn't happen) I can see how that WOULD suddenly take some of the air out of what a property is worth, especially on LI. However, the posh neighborhoods will still be posh and the less posh would still be less posh. If consolidation is done, then certainly there should be some sort of rule put in place that the children from a certain neighborhood will go to their neighborhood schools. If you want to break up teh "bad schools" and move kids from those districts into better performing schools and surround those students with better peforming students, then I think we could do that too.. ie: some students frmo Roosevelt go to roslyn, some Herricks, some New Hydpe Park.. Whatever.
But..alas it's a moot point anyway.. I KNOW it won't happen on LI because again.. people are too snobbish about their "schools".
And just to add.. sometimes the best schools inflate their numbers just to keep their property values from declining.
It's all a mess .. the whole system really.
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Answer some questions then.
