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Can't NC just pick an amount for sales tax and stick with it? This flip flopping is so annoying! Gotta be a royal pain in the arse for businesses as well.
More tax money? What a moron. She actually is saying that it is temporary. What a joke. I have lived in places that said the same thing and 'none' ended the tax at a later date. We don't need more money. We need to make parents pack a apple and peanut butter sandwich for lunch. Geeeze! Money spending isn't the cure for all social matters in the area. How about requiring mothers that buy scratch off lotterys to present a note from the school declaring that their child isn't on free or reduced price lunch? Or give those on free lunches ten dollars a week so they can buy a bag of apples, a jar of peanut butter, and a loaf of bread. That would be lots cheaper. I remember mothers buying cigarettes, coffee,and lotterys while their kids were getting free lunches.
Bev needs to go.
Here's an even better idea. Being that our unemployment rate is so high (ie, there's quite a few parents sitting at home); why don't those parents homeschool their kids? Not only will this save the school system and the state tons of money, we'll also have smarter kids. In addition to this, it's about time for NC to look into private school/homeschool vouchers (and/or tax credits). I mean seriously, if the state can't get it done; give a little back to the parents and private schools that can. It's not a perfect plan, but it sure beats building a 5 million dollar "day care" (ahem, school) and hiring $45k salary "baby sitters" (I mean "teachers").
Last edited by urbancharlotte; 01-20-2012 at 01:12 AM..
In my rural county, public education already receives the largest portion of all the locally-generated tax revenue. Everything else the local governments provide such as law enforcement, fire protection, social & public health services, emergency services, environmental protection, waste removal and economic development is secondary. Public education has all the funding the majority of citizens are willing to pay for.
Not sure where this thread came from, so I feel like I'm coming in on the tail end of the conversation. Anyway, I find it amusing that people want to criticize the Governor for trying to improve education in this state. I'm sure much of it is just blind partisanship, and that's unfortunately the root of the problem. I'm no cheerleader for Bev Perdue, but at least she is trying to improve education--I think it would be difficult for anyone to argue otherwise.
The real issue is that our education system needs some fundamental changes to make it more effective and efficient, and our government is not very good at doing that. The Republicans' approach is simply to cut funding, with no accompanying direction, leadership, or ideas for how to make things better. You can't just pull the money plug and expect things to get better--solving the problem requires a measured, comprehensive approach that seeks to identify root causes, eliminate waste, determine the best alternatives, then fund them appropriately. The Pubs have the cart way in front of the horse by cutting the money first. This makes no sense at all, and I believe much of it is merely pandering to their support base.
Of course, the Dems have much of the blame to share. The system we have now was built through decades of Democratic control in the legislature, so there's definitely an issue with turf and control. Some of those in positions of power will naturally want to protect the current ways of doing things, so they see more money as the only solution.
That said, there are some positive things about our educational system, and sometimes these tend to be overlooked in the rush to criticize. My kids were fortunate to attend one of the best high schools in the state for college prep, and they both entered college with almost a full year of AP credits because so many AP courses were available for them. In some areas there are initiatives to address the non-college bound kids and at-risk students with technical skills programs and incentives to stay in school. But when funding gets cut across the board, unfortunately the positive programs are often affected as well.
There is no easy solution here, and the blame shouldn't be directed at any one person or party...there's plenty of it to go around. But we need to get away from the blame game in order to fix things, and I don't see much hope for that happening anytime soon. The two parties are to the point that they can't work together for fear of one side getting more credit than the other. Our government is largely disfunctional because politicians would rather make the other side look bad than support good, progressive ideas that might not be entirely their own. We really can't expect much improvement unless the two sides put away the partisanship and focus on what's really important--educating our kids!
So does this mean my salary is no longer "frozen" after 4 years--or will admin continue to see raises and not those of us in the classroom? I would glady support a tax that restores my wages and keeps me current with COL...
Location: The place where the road & the sky collide
23,813 posts, read 34,657,307 times
Reputation: 10256
Quote:
Originally Posted by arbyunc
Not sure where this thread came from, so I feel like I'm coming in on the tail end of the conversation. Anyway, I find it amusing that people want to criticize the Governor for trying to improve education in this state. I'm sure much of it is just blind partisanship, and that's unfortunately the root of the problem. I'm no cheerleader for Bev Perdue, but at least she is trying to improve education--I think it would be difficult for anyone to argue otherwise.
The real issue is that our education system needs some fundamental changes to make it more effective and efficient, and our government is not very good at doing that. The Republicans' approach is simply to cut funding, with no accompanying direction, leadership, or ideas for how to make things better. You can't just pull the money plug and expect things to get better--solving the problem requires a measured, comprehensive approach that seeks to identify root causes, eliminate waste, determine the best alternatives, then fund them appropriately. The Pubs have the cart way in front of the horse by cutting the money first. This makes no sense at all, and I believe much of it is merely pandering to their support base.
Of course, the Dems have much of the blame to share. The system we have now was built through decades of Democratic control in the legislature, so there's definitely an issue with turf and control. Some of those in positions of power will naturally want to protect the current ways of doing things, so they see more money as the only solution.
That said, there are some positive things about our educational system, and sometimes these tend to be overlooked in the rush to criticize. My kids were fortunate to attend one of the best high schools in the state for college prep, and they both entered college with almost a full year of AP credits because so many AP courses were available for them. In some areas there are initiatives to address the non-college bound kids and at-risk students with technical skills programs and incentives to stay in school. But when funding gets cut across the board, unfortunately the positive programs are often affected as well.
There is no easy solution here, and the blame shouldn't be directed at any one person or party...there's plenty of it to go around. But we need to get away from the blame game in order to fix things, and I don't see much hope for that happening anytime soon. The two parties are to the point that they can't work together for fear of one side getting more credit than the other. Our government is largely disfunctional because politicians would rather make the other side look bad than support good, progressive ideas that might not be entirely their own. We really can't expect much improvement unless the two sides put away the partisanship and focus on what's really important--educating our kids!
This thread originally came from the Charlotte board & was titled as a new tax for Charlotte.
Last year the mess with the budget was followed closely by newspapers outside of Charlotte. The Republicans wanted to plug the hole by taking the year's allotment from a fund used by distressed counties for attracting jobs. Bev said no, so they took drastic cuts from education out of spite. The temporary sales tax hike was due to expire & she asked to extend half of it for education & they said no.
I posted a link concerning 2 of the distressed counties in the Charlotte area. There are more throughout the state, but I don't know which ones.
Location: The place where the road & the sky collide
23,813 posts, read 34,657,307 times
Reputation: 10256
Quote:
Originally Posted by arbyunc
^ Thanks for clarifying, southbound. I was wondering how it got to 4 pages before I saw it
You're welcome, arbyunc. It also explains some of the comments which take on a whole different meaning with the changed title. There was a long series of article in the Shelby Star last year concerning the budget. There were probably also articles in the Lincolnton newspaper. I didn't see a point in posting them, since I know that there were other counties in the same boat. That's why I posted that article from the Charlotte Observer.
Last edited by southbound_295; 01-20-2012 at 10:07 AM..
Reason: typo
This was the article and jist what this thread is discussing.
The OP posted a title that did not correspond to the thread topic.
Nor did the link in first post had anything to do with taxes.
I have seen in 2 states now methods of funding Schools. In NJ where I raised my kids school taxes were added to real estate taxes, Each town has its own system with the management (Super.) making big bucks in each town. In Nj my Real Estate Taxes were 4x what they are here. The cost /student at that time was around $10,000/student, a little higher for spec. needs kids. I cant complain because my kids both have done quite well after college here and then marrying and grandkids.
Here in NC the concept of sales taxes to fund schools and the county district system seems to be a better system but not showing the same results.I believe that there are not enough front line workers (teachers) and to many people working in the Admin. area. (managers). Its time to use IT to improve reporting methods and be able to lower the admins. level. In Rowan County new admin. building being planned seems like a big expense.
The sales tax raise is a good idea as long as the funds are going to the schools.
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