[DeltAlum]

So let me see if I've got this right.

Everyone who lives in the same school district as me should not only pay for the building and maintenance of the schools, salaries for teachers as well as administration and support staff, all of the additional infrastructure and things like school busses, new construction, stadiums and all the rest of the stuff -- and they should pay for expendibles even though they have no children in the system?

Or, as a parent, I should expect a single person, an older person or a couple who has no children to pay for expendibles that my child(ren) may or may not use wisely?

Yes?

Great, then shouldn't they also pay for my kids clothes and shoes and stuff? After all, I wouldn't have to buy all of that stuff if they didn't have to go to school.

How about my gasoline if I have to drive the kids to school. How about a car if they drive themselves? I mean, if they didn't, the system would have to buy more busses, right?

Silly? Sure it is.

Here's the deal. If you want the school system to pay for absolutely everything, I'm sure they would be happy to. All you have to do, as a community, is agree to supply the money for them to do it.

That's right, agree to higher taxes.

Or, how about this. We can eliminate all athletic programs and extra-cirricular activities and use that money. And I specifically say athletic programs -- because the first things to go are generally the arts. Music, Theatre, visual arts, etc. In the high school our kids attended, many more students participated in the arts -- not even counting other activities -- than in athletics. It was a substantial majority. And this was a big (Class 5A) city high school with 18 or 20 teams probably.

In reality, in order for the school system to pay for "everything," they would probably have to cut both.

OK, how about this? If my taxes are going to pay for everything K-12, why shouldn't they pay for college as well? I mean everything.

There has to be a point where everyone's taxes stop and families start in paying for education.

Having put three kids through schools, two of them through college (well, one is still in college, and thank goodness for scholarships), and one thru "hair school," I have little sympathy for those who want to complain about the relatively minor expenses associated with public schools (considering the overall potential costs), but are the first to complain that the schools aren't doing a good job at educating their children.

End of rant.

Until later, probably.