Dreadsox said:
Income Tax is tax $$$ raised by the state and federal governement. This money is redistributed and helps fund education but it does not come close to funding it all.
Property Tax is the money the TOWN raises for its services. Education is one of them. A majority of the school budget is funded by TOWN $$$. If you equally distribute the money that is already funding a level of services, you will not be able to afford the level of school system currently in place. The School Budget is the largest operating cost for towns. There is no way you can keep the level of service that you have if you are going to redistribute the $$$. If you increase class sizes, then you have an increased chance that you state scores will decrease. If they decrease, your property value decreases. If that happens your tax base decreases. If that happens, you have less to redistribute.
If you are saying they must PIRVATELY fund a system, you are raising taxes.
If all local taxes that are raised are redistributed through out the state, you can eliminate the uneven level of services seen between the wealthiest communities and the poorer communities. For your average community, such a redistribution will probably have little effect.
But, the point here is that you could raise the level in poorer communities without an increase in taxes. Why should people in wealthy communities expect that their taxes should provide them with services above and beyond the majority of the country? Wealthy communities taxes provide a bigger share of spending on national defense and other programs, why shouldn't they also be providing more for education or even local services through out a state as well?
As a country, would we benefit more by having the minority of wealthy communities keep tax dollars in their local area just for their own benefit, or would the country be better off if such tax dollars were redistributed?
Would rich communities be really upset if such a redistribution meant their level of services would fall to that of your average middle class community?
Would rich communities prefer to keep the current system, and simply have their income taxes increased to the level needed to provide poor community schools with the proper funding that is needed?
The public school system in any state should be able to provide students with the same level of education whether they go to school in the inner city or a wealthy community. The current system allows the wealthy community to send their childern to what is essentially a private school, from the perspective of people living in a poor community. The public school system is never going to be fixed until poorer communities schools receive the funding necessary to bring them to the level of other public schools. Its absurd that you would have a different level of funding per student, at various public schools around the state. The funding should be equal. If someone in a wealthy community desires a higher level of funding for the school their childern go to, then they can send them to a private school.
The United States spends more on education per student than any country in the world. Yet, what we find when we look at the problem in detail is that much of this funding is going to schools in wealthy communities. The United States could make a big move forward in solving its education problem if it would find a way to provide adequate funding for schools in poor communities. I think redistribution of the local tax money is a way that this could be achieved.
If someone in a rich community thinks that prevents them from having a gold plated level of service, then they should pay themselves for whatever additional service they desire, beyond what is found in your average community. That is not a tax either. Rich people buy and receives services beyond what most normal people have all the time, and its not considered to be a tax.