[Vision2020] school funding

[Kenneth Marcy]

On Friday 20 March 2009 14:06:38 JLBrown wrote:
> On a different note:  do folks think it is time to re-visit how we fund our
> public schools?  Below is Marty Trillhaase's column from a couple of days
> ago.

Yes. Better economic activities make local goods available in exchange for 
non-local dollars brought to a locality. Rescinding tax-favored property 
status for out-of-state owners would bring dollars into the state to lessen 
the amount of internal funds necessary.

Encourage those college-educated taxpayers with student loans outstanding to 
stay in Idaho to work by granting an Idaho income tax deduction for some 
percentage of the interest paid on student loan repayment during the tax 
year. I have not done calculations to determine the overall net revenue 
effect, but I suspect that such a benefit would encourage enough students to 
stay in Idaho who would otherwise move elsewhere that the net Idaho revenue 
would be positive.

Another problem related to Idaho school funding is that some towns, often 
smaller ones, have populations whose ages skew toward older, fixed-income 
adults. Such folks may feel less inclined to support local schools than 
younger residents with school-aged children, with the result that local 
maintenance and operations levies are more difficult to pass. A possible way 
to offset this problem would be to create a senior resident education 
equalization that would adjust the state-to-local transfers to school 
districts so as to offset inter-district funding differences based on higher 
percentage older local populations.

More generally, we should recognize that those who earn higher business 
incomes are benefiting from the availability of better-educated Idahoans, and 
those higher business incomes should be asked to contribute to the continuing 
supply of better educated Idahoans. Economic progress is better facilitated 
with progressive tax structures and rates. Regressively foisting the larger 
portion of education funding onto the backs of less prosperous Idahoans is 
not only less equitable, it is economically inefficient in supplying the 
workers businesses need and the jobs families want to provide for themselves.


Ken