[Vision2020] school funding

[Kai Eiselein]

I think you are off the mark, Donovan.
First of all, any parent of school-aged children can tell you a "free education" is anything but, there are fees for everything.
I think some costs can be reduced by making the education system less top-heavy and bureaucratic.
Part of the problem, especially in rural areas, is the fact there are fewer families in which to "spread the pain" of property taxes. Farms have become bigger, but the costs have soared, as well and margins are dependent on the market. Adding a huge increase in property taxes could put an even higher strain on many farms. I really don't know what the solution would be there, although a regional high school makes some sense for Latah County.
Santa Cruz County, Arizona at one time had just three high schools, one public in Nogales, one private, all-girls school in Nogales and one public in Patagonia. There is one more now, in Rio Rico. The county is about 150 square miles larger than Latah County. The populations are similar, as well, with Santa Cruz County having an estimated 42,845 residents to Latah County's estimated 36,299.

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Donovan Arnold 
  To: vision2020 at moscow.com ; Kenneth Marcy 
  Sent: Friday, March 20, 2009 4:12 PM
  Subject: Re: [Vision2020] school funding


        I think parents should take on a higher cost of their children's education. 

        There was a time when everyone had lots of children, so it made sense that every gave so much to education. But now not everyone has so many children, or any children at all. The cost of education is huge, especially with parents demanding everything little service for their children from pampers to college degree. 

        I think parents in the top 25% income bracket should have to pay 100% of the costs of their children. I think parents in the middle 50% bracket should have to pay 50% of the cost on the first two children they have. The bottom 25% should have to pay 25% of cost of their first two children. 

        This would make parents responsible in both the academic wellbeing of their children, but also share in the costs of how the government spends its limited resources. They want a new program, they want a new bus, they want a gym? OK, but match the taxpayer in their commitment to your child's education. If no ones is on the line for the cost of a school bus or new jungle gym bars, the costs go from a $70,000 for a good used soild bus, to one that $185,000 brand new with every single feature to take kids just two miles a day. 

        I also think the funding should be collected and spent on a statewide basis, not on a county by county basis which has huge disparities in income and quality of life standards, as well as the number of children. 

        Best Regards,

        Donovan



        --- On Fri, 3/20/09, Kenneth Marcy <kmmos1 at verizon.net> wrote:


          From: Kenneth Marcy <kmmos1 at verizon.net>
          Subject: Re: [Vision2020] school funding
          To: vision2020 at moscow.com
          Date: Friday, March 20, 2009, 3:38 PM


          -----Inline Attachment Follows-----


          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

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