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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 That means finding a friend with a smartphone or borrowing someone's outdated one, then going into a Starbucks
Last edited by Ericthebean; 10-01-2014 at 08:31 AM..
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.
How has that worked the last 6 years? Granted, in the big picture 6 years is nothing but the robbing of any group of the others is wrong. The reason the "wealthy" is so much wealthier today than 20 years ago has been government policies that take from the poor and middle classes to benefit the wealthy.
Quote:
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
It would be a mistake to stop others from spending money as they wish even if only on themselves but it is not a mistake to stop the policies that are stealing from the lower classes.
What's happening is the reliance on local property taxes to fund schools has become unsustainable for poorer districts. States have been reducing the amount of money they are giving to school districts and forcing local governments and districts to make up the difference. No biggie if you live in a wealthy area with high property values, but a huge deal in you live in a district with high levels of poverty and or low property values, which in turn creates absurdly high millage rates which further depresses the value of property.
The affluent school districts around here are building $100 million+ high schools and turning out senior classes with 98% college acceptance rates while the middle class and poor districts are laying off teachers and barely keeping the lights on. It's a huge problem.
I pay some insanely high property taxes, but I also have a reasonable expectation of a good education for my children. That said i believe it's a shame that the quality of a public school facility and the education received in it is based on a childs address and the amount of taxes his or her parents can afford to pay. It's a failure that perpetuates income inequality in this country.
What's happening is the reliance on local property taxes to fund schools has become unsustainable for poorer districts. States have been reducing the amount of money they are giving to school districts and forcing local governments and districts to make up the difference. No biggie if you live in a wealthy area with high property values, but a huge deal in you live in a district with high levels of poverty and or low property values, which in turn creates absurdly high millage rates which further depresses the value of property.
The affluent school districts around here are building $100 million+ high schools and turning out senior classes with 98% college acceptance rates while the middle class and poor districts are laying off teachers and barely keeping the lights on. It's a huge problem.
And no, creating new wealth for the already wealthy doesn't create innovations. It's wealth capture that doesn't make it's way out of that wealth bubble, at least when education is concerned.
No look, wealthy that spend on wealthy are hiring teachers to teach and paying them a lot of money. Eventually this creates more pay for teachers and this results in more teachers fighting their way to get hired by wealthy school districts to teach by building their credentials to be high quality teachers. But many of these very qualified teachers will find no job openings and so they will have to choose between unemployment and teaching at poorer schools for less pay. If this happens, this is good for the poor.
Now what about teachers who are privileged because they know somebody at their place of worship or family or relative? That creates a closed-circuit insular system, true. But this wealth is not robbing the poor. It just changes the game. The game becomes find the flaws in these people and fulfill their needs and you will get a piece of their wealth. For example, in Beverly Hills there are millionaire actresses who do not know how to rotate the tires on their Rolls Royce's, not knowing their car is not all that special ....it's a car like any other. Poor person can do the tire rotation and get paid 5 grand "oh my God you saved my car!!!!!" The wealthy have vulnerable needs and the ability to fulfill those needs does not require wealth and yet to them it's a valuable service that they will pay for at what to you and me is a high-end price.
The ones who have caught onto this most are those who assist the elderly and work in longterm care. They have become part of the insular wealth circles without needing to be part of a wealth cliche.
Among the homeless people, the smartest ones are those who have become dwellers in university towns. I think you can break barriers by not being afraid to approach the insular wealthy and learning how they operate and behave.
I think the bottom line is there is nothing unapproachable to the poor that the elitest richy groups have when it comes down to life needs and wants...a lot of facades but reality is the rich are as needy as the poor. The rich showy will offer a lot of pay if you can fulfill their wants and needs. The rich and frugal will share their secrets to wealth with you if you approach them kindly...and perhaps share a meal with you. Either wealthy type will have something to give.
Last edited by Ericthebean; 10-01-2014 at 09:05 AM..
What's happening is the reliance on local property taxes to fund schools has become unsustainable for poorer districts. States have been reducing the amount of money they are giving to school districts and forcing local governments and districts to make up the difference. No biggie if you live in a wealthy area with high property values, but a huge deal in you live in a district with high levels of poverty and or low property values, which in turn creates absurdly high millage rates which further depresses the value of property.
The affluent school districts around here are building $100 million+ high schools and turning out senior classes with 98% college acceptance rates while the middle class and poor districts are laying off teachers and barely keeping the lights on. It's a huge problem.
I pay some insanely high property taxes, but I also have a reasonable expectation of a good education for my children. That said i believe it's a shame that the quality of a public school facility and the education received in it is based on a childs address and the amount of taxes his or her parents can afford to pay. It's a failure that perpetuates income inequality in this country.
There is a lot of truth in this.
I grew up in a poor area in Appalachia where property tax rates are low, and property values low, but the taxes have to be low because it takes every dollar to survive.
Schools, in general, are quite poor in the area. There is a cultural apathy toward, and even suspicion of, education, which reinforces the poverty.
But how does school spending in a wealthy area of Nashville take away from the poor kids on the eastern part of the state? It doesn't and all it does is build further wealth for the already wealthy, but it doesn't harm the poor directly.
No look, wealthy that spend on wealthy are hiring teachers to teach and paying them a lot of money. Eventually this creates more pay for teachers and this results in more teachers fighting their way to get hired by wealthy school districts to teach by building their credentials to be high quality teachers. But many of these very qualified teachers will find no job openings and so they will have to choose between unemployment and teaching at poorer schools for less pay. If this happens, this is good for the poor.
A teacher that is that driven may simply go into a more lucrative career rather than work for peanuts in a poor district and deal with all the problems there.
No look, wealthy that spend on wealthy are hiring teachers to teach and paying them a lot of money. Eventually this creates more pay for teachers and this results in more teachers fighting their way to get hired by wealthy school districts to teach by building their credentials to be high quality teachers. But many of these very qualified teachers will find no job openings and so they will have to choose between unemployment and teaching at poorer schools for less pay. If this happens, this is good for the poor.
LOL.
Simply stating this does not make it factual. Using what appears to be non biased information the richest school district is 1) Scarsdale Union Free School District, N.Y.
Now granted they pay more than the very poorest school system which is listed as 1) Barbourville Independent School District, Ky.
The average income in the top school is $238,000 and the average teacher pay is $62,108. Granted a decent wage but the average property tax is $31,000. That is well over half the teachers income after other taxes. So how well off are these teachers actually?
The average income in the Ky district is $16,607. The average teacher pay is $43,411. The medium home price is $81,000 so a teacher in that district is actually doing pretty darn well.
Texas has robin hood financing. All the money goes to the state and the state doles it out to school districts.
The affluent districts are complaining though; they want to keep all their money and let the poor districts figure out another way to raise money.
That is what is driving an effort to appeal robin hood financing.
Another thing the affluent school districts are doing is pooling their personal money through the PTA and hiring their own teachers for their schools.
New building and stadiums are bond issues voted on by the residents.
Any city can vote to build a new school but the financing is via municipal bonds and the poor districts just don't have good bond ratings and investors wouldn't buy them.
The affluent school districts around here are building $100 million+ high schools and turning out senior classes with 98% college acceptance rates while the middle class and poor districts are laying off teachers and barely keeping the lights on. It's a huge problem.
The money spent on the building and the people who work there is not what explains that 98% college acceptance rate. The typical family in "affluent" neighborhoods is married, both parents have at least a four year degree and a different educational culture within the home. It's a culture of hard work and good choices.
Education starts with family/home culture, with the pile of bricks the education takes place in coming in way behind that. The parochial schools of my home city rate highest almost across the board in any academic performance measure, and they have the lowest average teacher salaries, lowest per pupil spending, and the oldest, junkiest buildings that are in several cases more than a century old.
Affluent people care more about education, thus they spend more on it, focus on it, and instead of waiting for solutions to be handed to them, are actually driving the solution of their own volition. Affluent people do this because in education, they simply mirror those qualities and behaviors that made them affluent in the first place. Affluent does not happen by accident, nor does good education.
I actually agree with it being a problem, why don't all donations and tax dollars go into one account to be divided out based on the needs of each district. We have some affluent school systems building Multi Million dollar football stadiums while other schools are struggling to keep their roof from leaking and the school on good repair, that simply makes no sense. And for those that say their children should have an advantage I say send your kid to a private school.
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