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But isn’t there a residency requirement to vote? Or do they just register everything new New Hampshire so it looks like they live there? Forgive me, I’m still working on house number one. I just summer there, where I live.
You can claim residency there as long as you spend 6 months and 1 day there. Many people do it because of the no income/sales taxes but also because of property values. You see this a lot in the seacoast area in particular where there are a lot of "family" homes, passed from generation to generation and paid off long ago.
If we had a "flat" income tax like PA, it wouldn't stay "flat" for long.
Would be interesting to see how many states started out with a "flat" income tax (like PA) and then later upgraded to "progressive", then raised the base rate...
Pennsylvania is ranked in the top 10 for property taxes, and top 20 for overall tax burden (property tax, income tax, and a 6% sales tax). Has Pennsylvania's income tax done anything to reduce the tax burden imposed on PA residents?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lincolnian
In today's world, there are many opportunities to attain specified knowledge and skills without going to a 4-year college. Schools should not be marketing arms of the college system. Schools could partner with local companies to offer students exposure to skills that are more on-the-job based. This is especially true for trade, manufacturing, and other jobs that work well with an apprentice-type arrangement.
That can be a tough sell, nobody wants to hear that their son (or daughter) isn't cut out for a 4-year degree and would be better served by learning a trade.
Not saying bringing back an emphasis on trades as a career wouldn't be an improvement over today's emphasis on STEM and going into debt for advanced education, just that it would be a hard sell.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lincolnian
COVID19 has shown many employers that they can restructure their workforce and still meet the requirements of operating their organization. Schools are different in that students do need a place to socially interact as a critical component of their development. However, the social interactions don't necessarily have to take place for everyone, in the same building, at the same time, for a quality learning experience to take place.
Socialization is critical up through about 5th grade; all we learned after that was that teens can get away with harassment (not to mention assault, battery) the likes of which would get any adult fired from their job, banned from private property, or prosecuted (civilly and/or criminally).
That can be a tough sell, nobody wants to hear that their son (or daughter) isn't cut out for a 4-year degree and would be better served by learning a trade.
I think that slowly, more parents are realizing that college isn't for every young adult, or at least not right out of high school. Especially with the costs of colleges and universities skyrocketing, and all the stories for the last 10+ of those with college degrees being unable to find a job in their field of study.
But it's hard to buck the college trainwreck, when all the school teachers are promoting STEM and have no respect for the skilled trades. And part of that is because of their own attitudes of self-importance, demanding more pay and trying to maintain their job security.
In my town, I have encountered a few families where instead of sending their kids to our highly regarded semi-private academy, they have opted to drive their kids to Dover tech high school instead. And a few have opted for homeschooling. Kudos to all of them!
The Germans have a good system of apprenticeship programs for high school students in the trades and with companies. Wish we had that, but I suppose that there would be potential liability issues in the US. I would like to see high school students volunteer or be paid a stipend to work Habitat for Humanity type projects. But again, those pesky liability issues.
I'm not getting the hatred for STEM courses. Practically everyone would be more functional today if their math skills were better, and this pandemic has shown us pretty clearly that our science education is abysmal.
The emphasis on STEM happened because our colleges were churning out too many Art History and Medieval British Literature majors while advances in technology were creating job openings requiring science and math skills. All those trades you all want to fill require math and/or science skills too.
What we need to do is to combine STEM proficiency with practical trade experience, and not throw the STEM curriculum out with the proverbial bath water.
I'm not getting the hatred for STEM courses. Practically everyone would be more functional today if their math skills were better, and this pandemic has shown us pretty clearly that our science education is abysmal.
The emphasis on STEM happened because our colleges were churning out too many Art History and Medieval British Literature majors while advances in technology were creating job openings requiring science and math skills. All those trades you all want to fill require math and/or science skills too.
What we need to do is to combine STEM proficiency with practical trade experience, and not throw the STEM curriculum out with the proverbial bath water.
I am not against STEM. I was a math teacher. I am deeply concerned about the lack of competitiveness in education of our students compared to other countries in the STEM fields. It is the current way that it is structured in schools that is the problem. The curriculum is a one-size-fits all model largely driven by the test items on the SBAC/PARCC assessments. There are highly-technical learning opportunities that can meet the curricular objectives without delivering it to everyone in the same format. The real-life problem solving is often contrived and lacks authentic application experiences. This is the reason why employers often have to re-educate so many graduates to meet basic requirements of their field of study. For many young adults they have had little or no real-life experiences to try things out, make mistakes and refine their understanding. NH’s own Dean Kamen founded the National Robotic Competition specifically to bring these types of experiences to kids. There are thousands of opportunities to involve knowledgeable people, businesses and organization to offer similar experiences. It could not only save taxpayers money, but it also could encourage growth and commitment to the communiites involved.
I see many opportunities go unfulfilled and at the same time see numerous people unable to find a job that allows them to sustain themselves and/or their families. We need to stop thinking about education as school and instead focus on helping students develop curiosity and be exposed to opportunites, experiences, skills and knowledge that will help them thrive. For far too many that is not in the current classroom.
I think that slowly, more parents are realizing that college isn't for every young adult, or at least not right out of high school. Especially with the costs of colleges and universities skyrocketing, and all the stories for the last 10+ of those with college degrees being unable to find a job in their field of study.
But it's hard to buck the college trainwreck, when all the school teachers are promoting STEM and have no respect for the skilled trades. And part of that is because of their own attitudes of self-importance, demanding more pay and trying to maintain their job security.
In my town, I have encountered a few families where instead of sending their kids to our highly regarded semi-private academy, they have opted to drive their kids to Dover tech high school instead. And a few have opted for homeschooling. Kudos to all of them!
The Germans have a good system of apprenticeship programs for high school students in the trades and with companies. Wish we had that, but I suppose that there would be potential liability issues in the US. I would like to see high school students volunteer or be paid a stipend to work Habitat for Humanity type projects. But again, those pesky liability issues.
The issue with the German system is that by 5th grade, students are placed into one of three tracks and defying the state with the assigned track is rare. Keep in mind that German companies pay and train the students while in school as part of their apprenticeship. Here in the US, it's expected that the state pay for that training.
What will happen is everyone's taxes will go up and everyone will pay more. Pennsylvania is an excellent example. This site shows average tax burden by state:
rank 1 == highest tax burden, rank 50 == lowest tax burden. New Hampshire is 44, Pennsylvania is 15. Pennsylvania's tax burden is 30% higher than New Hampshire's. You can get the exact same effect today if you want without creating a state income tax, just raise all property taxes by 30% across the board.
More types of taxes == higher taxes for everyone. If you go to bed every night upset that New Hampshire just isn't spending enough yet on schools, that class sizes of 10 kids is outrageous and it should be more like 5 kids per class, voting for a state income tax is definitely the way to go.
Look, I know you would like it if you had to pay NO taxes and NH class sizes were 1900 students with the janitor also teaching but your embarrassing yourself by pulling ridiculous numbers out of your butt.
Average class size in the state clusters around 20. [url]https://my.doe.nh.gov/profiles/profile.aspx?d=&year=2017&tab=[/url]
Look, I know you would like it if you had to pay NO taxes and NH class sizes were 1900 students with the janitor also teaching but your embarrassing yourself by pulling ridiculous numbers out of your butt.
If you want to blow a gasket - go to pages 7 & 8 that list actual teacher-student ratios and costs of benefits... The actual ratio is one teacher to 10 or 11 students...
BTW, you have to include all faculty, not just divide the number of students by the number of teachers. From your own source:
Teachers 14,758
Instructional Support 6,980
Librarians 324
Specialists 2,772
Admin Support 1,247
All Other Support 3,241
The number of 'other faculty' is almost exactly equal to the number of teachers. So the ratio of students to faculty by your own data is ~10:1.
And no, I didn't say I want to pay no taxes or there should be 1900 students per class. I said 10 students / class is an insane waste of money. And suing the state to force people in other districts to pay for that insane waste of money is unconscionable. If a town wants the luxury / waste of 10 students per class that's up to them, but they need to pay for it themselves, not force 'other' people pay it for them.
I said I was going to research Bow CU land to find out who owned property that is enrolled in the Rec use classification. I was told by the town that I would have to pay for that information as it was not something they had available. Inconceivable.
I would rather see a small flat income tax or a small sales tax if that could come with a dramatic cut in property taxes. Like cut them by 2/3rds and get property taxes down to levels that a lot of states in the southeast and mountain west are at.
Shoving most all the taxes you collect in a state over to ONE single area, property taxes, creates a weird dysfunctional housing situation where housing is terribly unaffordable. And a situation where you do not really own your house even if it is paid off, the CITY you live in owns your house! And I say this being a low tax, small gov't guy.
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If we had a "flat" income tax like PA, it wouldn't stay "flat" for long.
