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You didn't name those school districts. But a well run "rich" school district still has enough money to do damn near anything they want. Eanes ISD in Austin sends 47% of its M&O property tax revenue out of district. Eanes is one of the best school districts in Texas and is one of the richest with over $1M of property wealth per student.
Lake Travis ISD in Austin sent 38% of its M&O revenue out of district in 2014. Yet LTISD is usually regarded as 2nd best in Austin after Eanes and continues to excel. Its facilities are excellent.
A smartly run school district in Texas should know how to maximize its tax dollars. They should shift as many expenses as allowed by law to the bond side of finances, which are protected from Robin Hood.
If your school district can't fund what is needed, I suggest they are not well run or they are just extravagant and spending money on the wrong things.
Yes. But bond packages have to be put together, promoted and voted in. While it does work (if the bond passes), it still costs the district to have bond elections.
The two school districts are Crockett County CCSD (Common Consolidated School District) and Dripping Springs ISD.
They both had to cut back on some items because of Robin Hood. Taxes are not quite as high in CCCCSD because of oil/gas wealth. There are a number of like small West Texas districts on this list. It's not that they are not wisely managed--it's that they could do even MORE if they didn't have their property tax proceeds stolen to give to property poor districts.
One district in my area, Fort Davis ISD, is a Chapter 41 school. There are about 1000 districts statewide, with only 374 of them as 41 districts that have to share their property tax proceeds with the others.
FDISD had to cut their band program because of funding. Had this tiny district been able to keep all of its own tax wealth, that probably wouldn't have happened.
Lake Travis ISD is considerably larger than any of the Chapter 41 schools I mention here. When you are a small district, the cuts are worse because you don't have the tax base that a larger one does.
My district, Alpine ISD, is not a Chapter 41, yet the property taxes here are really, really, really HIGH.
Last edited by Cathy4017; 10-01-2014 at 05:40 PM..
This may be true. But let me say this. Any school spending by the affluent can only widen the wealth gap by creating new wealth, not by robbing the poor. With that said, it is a win-win
New wealth from improved education for the wealthy means new innovations which means new jobs for wealthy and poor alike.
End result: it's more a boost to the affluent but the poor are better off as well from this. A mistake would be to stop the affluent from spending on education in efforts to narrow the wealth gap. That would be bad for the poor also.
The way to improve society is to look at this
Very bad is to redistribute wealth from poor to rich (Consumer fraud, deceptive marketing)
Bad is to redistribute wealth from rich to poor (Tax hikes)
Good is anything that creates wealth for the wealthy without affecting the wealth of the poor (high quality education for those who can pay for it)
Very good is something the poor creates that benefits all (YouTube uploads, wikipedia editing, comedy, music, diary entries, exercising of the right to vote). I don't mean poor poor but something you can create if you have very little net worth. Youtube and wikipedia you can change and influence with nothing besides access to internet. That means finding a friend with a smartphone or borrowing someone's outdated one, then going into a Starbucks
This is the problem with Conservative-think, and why it is as detrimental to the well-being of this society as any WMD. A chain is only as strong as its weakest link. You don't make the chain stronger by duplicating the strong links and adding them to the chain.
As it has clearly been demonstrated by the failure of trickle-down (or voodoo) economics, when the rich are enriched, they don't give a damn about anybody but themselves. They work to make themselves even richer, while everyone else goes to hell. The chain gets longer, but because the weak links are still weak, the chain still sucks. Pubs simply clueless on this issue.
I'm for high quality education, ESPECIALLY for those who aren't rich, as one component of a superior strategy to undo the damage that Conservatism has done to this country in the manner that you describe.
Tell me how buying the most expensive laptop there is will educate an apathetic student with a teacher only concerned about the average standardized test scores of the class and parents that have zero involvement with their child's education?
Washington DC is nearly at the top for per student spending and nearly at the bottom in terms of graduation rates. Why hasn't the money put them at the top?
Why does Finland spend the same as the US average per student but their students are ranked the highest in the world?
I am totally in favor of adopting the entire Finnish system. Sign me up.
Personally, I find private schools morally reprehensible. As do I the grotesque stadiums and the culture of excess found in many wealthy suburban high schools.
We are quickly approaching 3rd century Rome. Not a good thing.
I am totally in favor of adopting the entire Finnish system. Sign me up.
Personally, I find private schools morally reprehensible. As do I the grotesque stadiums and the culture of excess found in many wealthy suburban high schools.
We are quickly approaching 3rd century Rome. Not a good thing.
Finland has a population about the size of Colorado. It's population is amongst the most educated in the world. Family size is small and about 40% of all births are to single mothers. Child poverty is amongst the lowest in the world.
Teaching is a highly respected profession, equal to an MD. Only the best student make the grade for the profession. All have a minimum of a Masters Degree. Most have multiple Master Degrees.
95% of teachers are unionized.
Most schools use the Waldorf Method of teaching and learning. Children are not introduced to reading until age 7. Students in lower grades are not tracked or graded.
Beginning in first grade, most children commute to school on public transportation and navigate movement from classroom to classroom on their own. Independence is stressed. No helecopters moms.
There is a 15 minute break between each class and children are put outside to play, rain or shine. Teachers relax in lounges or go for walks.
Children are not overprogrammed after school.
The Finnish culture has a deep respect for education and most adults participate in continuing education
There is no incremental cost for education at any level.
Taxes are progressive and substantially higher than in the US.
Taxes are progressive and substantially higher than in the US.
That is true, but that extra revenue goes to areas other than education. Finland's education spending comes to $7500 per pupil, which is substantially less than the U.S. average of $10500. If you could somehow transplant the Finnish system to the U.S. unaltered the government would be spending 29% less on schools, so if anything you could cut taxes.
As for private schools whether they exist or not is irrelevant to Finland's success, considering that aside from Finland plenty of other countries have almost-all-public systems but all are doing much worse than they are. In any arena the absence of competition or alternatives does nothing to improve the quality of the primary provider; the quality of their service is always dependent on the model used and how well it is managed. If it is a great model and it is implemented well the service will be great; if it is a subpar model and bungled up the service will be poor.
Finland has a population about the size of Colorado. It's population is amongst the most educated in the world. Family size is small and about 40% of all births are to single mothers. Child poverty is amongst the lowest in the world.
Teaching is a highly respected profession, equal to an MD. Only the best student make the grade for the profession. All have a minimum of a Masters Degree. Most have multiple Master Degrees.
95% of teachers are unionized.
Most schools use the Waldorf Method of teaching and learning. Children are not introduced to reading until age 7. Students in lower grades are not tracked or graded.
Beginning in first grade, most children commute to school on public transportation and navigate movement from classroom to classroom on their own. Independence is stressed. No helecopters moms.
There is a 15 minute break between each class and children are put outside to play, rain or shine. Teachers relax in lounges or go for walks.
Children are not overprogrammed after school.
The Finnish culture has a deep respect for education and most adults participate in continuing education
There is no incremental cost for education at any level.
Taxes are progressive and substantially higher than in the US.
In Finland immigrants are segregated until they learn the national language. Immigrants are forced to become Finns.
This is the problem with Conservative-think, and why it is as detrimental to the well-being of this society as any WMD. A chain is only as strong as its weakest link. You don't make the chain stronger by duplicating the strong links and adding them to the chain.
As it has clearly been demonstrated by the failure of trickle-down (or voodoo) economics, when the rich are enriched, they don't give a damn about anybody but themselves. They work to make themselves even richer, while everyone else goes to hell. The chain gets longer, but because the weak links are still weak, the chain still sucks. Pubs simply clueless on this issue.
I'm for high quality education, ESPECIALLY for those who aren't rich, as one component of a superior strategy to undo the damage that Conservatism has done to this country in the manner that you describe.
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This is so absurd
