[Peace-discuss] taxes for school

[Jenifer Cartwright]

Folks,
It's hard to keep those old schools clean, and some of them have asbestos and mold. One school where I worked had to shut down their kitchen permanently and move it to the church across the street because the kitchen was so badly infested w/ bugs. (The bond referendum to replace those 100 year-old schools finally passed the following fall). Don't even think about the bathrooms... And forget accessibility. They're expensive to keep in good repair, expensive to heat and light: think NOT green. And of course they heat unevenly, so some classrooms are freezing while others are too hot. And of course no AC, so schools have to be dismissed when those 90-90 days hit. One day, my third floor speech room registered in the high 90s...
 
Congrats to those who did well "in the day" with a primary education in a one-room schoolhouse. Abe Lincoln didn't have electricity or indoor plumbing. Moses didn't have paper and ink. How far back do you want to take this?? This is now. We can and should give our students an excellent education -- teachers/other staff, programs, materials, and physical space -- buildings -- as well. All things being equal -- or as equal as we can make them -- it makes a huge difference.
 --Jenifer
 
 
 

--- On Thu, 10/23/08, E. Wayne Johnson <ewj at pigs.ag> wrote:

From: E. Wayne Johnson <ewj at pigs.ag>
Subject: Re: [Peace-discuss] taxes for school
To: "Bob Illyes" <illyes at uiuc.edu>
Cc: peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net
Date: Thursday, October 23, 2008, 12:11 PM

Bob,
It had not occurred to me that there might be problems in the pipeline 
and the state could divert
the county tax funds to other purposes (in case of "emergency", of 
course, eh?).

I voted against the school sales tax because I dont see the degree of 
transparency and accountability that
I desire to find in their operations.  I also voted against it because I 
perceive gross mismanagement.
Further, I voted against the tax because I dont think that buildings and 
equipment equate to improved education.
There may even be a negative effect in some cases.

My mother and her two siblings were educated in a one-room country 
school.  They all 3 have advanced
degrees and one uncle was valedictorian at UIUC in 1958.  The relative 
poverty of the elementary school
does not appear to have hindered their education or their schooling.

There is no guarantee of significant property tax relief.  My property 
taxes have gone up 50% since I moved here,
probably because of improvements to the lawn as I suppose ;-) .  The 
sales tax proposal is not revenue neutral.
It has been stated that the schools would not seek the new tax if indeed 
it was a revenue neutral. 

I am not opposed to supporting the schools.  After all, I do have 4 
children who will be in school so
I have some responsibility to contribute to supporting their 
education.    I am pleased with the
performance of King School where our boys attend school.  I am however 
concerned about the
Urbana Middle School, since I drive by there frequently and what I see 
surely is not goodness.
I have talked to friends in Champaign about the truly nightmarish 
discipline issues they have and
feel blessed to be in Urbana right now. 

I think education is a good thing, so I would be motivated to support 
education even if there was no sense of obligation
to contribute.

However, we are being sold this bill of goods that the level and quality 
of education is directly proportional
to the level of funding, which is as untrue as Twain's extrapolations 
from the meandering and cutoffs of the Mississippi.
I would believe that the more money they have, the more ways they can 
find to waste and squander the resources.

Finally the school system has succeeded in convincing me that I am being 
lied to and deceived by their
activities, and until they "come clean" and act as accountable
stewards 
of the public trust, I am not
inclined to support them to a higher level of mismanagement.

Wayne

Bob Illyes wrote:
> I'm opposed to the local sales tax for education for two reasons:
>
> 1) I understand that the plan is to reduced property tax so that the 
> sales tax is revenue neutral.
>
> 2) I also understand that the state will collect the tax and return it 
> to us. The state, which seems to be bankrupt, is liable to just keep 
> the tax by the mechanism of reducing other state funding to our 
> schools, as they have done with the lottery money.
>
> So unless I am wrong about this, we will end up with neither school 
> funding nor property tax relief, but simply more money going to the 
> state government, which seems to be a black hole with regard to money.
>
> Bob
>
> _______________________________________________
> Peace-discuss mailing list
> Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net
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>
>
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