fix the school funding problem

When I read and watch the news, I keep looking for specific things people suggest or demand that will actually change things.  I’m not seeing much of anything.

I made a list of four things, and I would like to offer one here.

Minorities often complain about the public schools in their areas.  The biggest complaint is inadequate funding. 

As long as public schools are funded by the property tax, schools in minority areas will probably always be thought of as underfunded.

I suggest that we fund public education through the income tax.  Yes, this will require a tax increase, but property taxes will go down substantially.  And this is far more palatable.  The value of one’s property is no indication of a person’s ability to pay taxes on it. 

Retired and unemployed people can find tax time extremely taxing, literally and metaphorically.

However, this education tax must be kept separate from the general funds, otherwise it will be spent on other things.  In fact, I would suggest tax forms and pay stubs have a separate education tax designation.

Let the state determine a base amount of spending per student, and raise that through the income tax. Local school boards should be allowed to raise and spend more, however their local community decides.

People who choose to send their kids to private schools should be able to deduct the amount spent on private schools up to the amount they would pay for public education.   People shouldn’t have to pay twice for their children’s’ education.

immigration: a forgotten subject

Can we talk about something else for a minute?  Take a break from the pandemic, protests, police, and President stories?

Sunday’s paper had an article (Maple Leaf Model, June 14) that was quick to bash the United States and to praise our northern neighbors.

Unfortunately, the author was right in some ways, but way off in others.

Imagine you owned a large company, and you needed to hire 500 people.  You put out a call to hire, and 10,000 people applied for work.

What would you do?

If our government did the hiring, they would hire everybody who showed up in person first and then mix up the rest between relatives of current employees, people who need a job the most, and top it off with a lottery, taking people at random.

That has been our country’s immigration policy for decades.  Oh, we do make room for some people who are actually highly qualified, but there’s only so much room.

Canada is praised for setting a target for immigration rather than a cap.  It is not mentioned that our cap is about 6x times higher than their goal. 

Canada is praised for not taking everyone but preferring those with “desirable” qualifications.  Our government leaders pride themselves for not turning anyone away.

The author seems confused, though, about which political party favors which immigration policies.

 

I do hope his article sparks a national conversation on something else here beyond all the current crises.

police in public schools

Have we forgotten already the reason the police are in schools in the first place?

Our nation is flitting around from one crisis to another, making laws, rules, and regulations in fits of emotion only to find that the solution to the first crisis doesn’t work in the next crisis.

We demand police in every school in the wake of a rash of school shootings, which seem to have stopped for some reason, hmmm, but now mobs demand their removal, so that suddenly sounds like a really good idea. 

We shut down the economy to enforce social distancing, but it doesn’t matter now if people are protesting.

 

In crises, the media work to rouse the emotions of the people, and our political leaders hurry to change or fix things to quell the masses, but it leads to poorly crafted legislation and kneejerk solutions that are nothing more than band aids. 

Everybody is in such a rush to change things, they will make decisions based on emotions and not wisdom.  This will only undermine the confidence of the people in our political leaders and only further the divide in our country.

After the protests, then what?

We have seen and heard the anger and frustration of so many people.  Fine.  Now what?

I really don’t expect to see much happen as a result of all of this, because there is no focus on what exactly we are to do now.  Legislative sessions will open, and they won’t know what to do.

The men involved in George Floyd’s death have been charged with crimes.  The courts will have to figure out their levels of culpability and the appropriate punishment.  The public, not being privy to all the information, likely will not be satisfied with all the outcomes, and maybe there will be another wave of protests.  The irony is that street justice is one of the very things they’ve been complaining about, and it will be very thing they will then be demanding.

So what do we do now?

Without people making specific reform proposals, nothing is going to change.

So I offer my proposals:

1.         My first thought here is that we should have thousands and thousands of people wanting to become police officers.  Somebody has to do it right, and when nobody is, the right response is for people to step up and show everybody how it’s done.

As much as possible, I would only employ minority officers to work in minority neighborhoods.  I see that as a step backward as a nation, but I see as much animosity from the public toward the police as the police are accused of having toward the public.  Maybe someday in the future we can stop seeing people by races, something like Martin Luther King talked about.

That’s going to require hiring by race, which will need to be cleared by the courts, but it seems that the conditions here mandate race as a requirement of employment in many cases. 

 

2.         I would change the method for funding schools.  We have relied on the property tax, and it’s not working.   Poor areas are not able to generate enough money for public education.  The state should determine a basic level of spending per student and raise that through the income tax.  Public education money must then be kept separate from general funds, otherwise it will be spent on other things. 

3.         The gangs must be shut down.  This decision must be broad-based in that you don’t want any one individual publicly responsible for making that decision.  The drug cartels won’t like it, so you can’t give them any particular individuals to target in retaliation.  It could lead to a real war of sorts, with casualties.  Wars cost a price, but sometimes they are necessary, and this is a necessary one.

4.         We need investment in the black community, but people are not going to want to invest there unless they can be sure their investment is safe from non-business risks.  Those who destroy or vandalize property must be punished.  There are no excuses.  They are hurting their entire community by their acts, not just the particular property owners.

 

I think this is a good start.  When I think of more, I will write again on this.