tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31730692.post-72373526263630268752008-03-12T00:44:00.000-04:002008-03-12T00:44:00.000-04:002008-03-12T00:44:00.000-04:00People's property taxes are too high in my district --you could rent an apartment for what we pay every month in property tax for our one suburban home. And the baby boomers are facing or in retirement --and their incomes are static. They don't feel they can afford to stay in their homes with these taxes. I did vote for the levy, however, this time.<BR/><BR/>But the reason for the ever increasing school budget is the constant raising of the base income of the teachers and administrators and the support staff--every time a union gets a raise they turn around and start to threaten strikes if they don't get the next one. So as the incomes steadily increase, the property taxes do. And it wouldn't matter WHERE the support comes from--it's ultimately our pockets.<BR/><BR/> And rightly we pay for good schools --but in Toledo the schools aren't even good and they pay their staff well --more than in some outlying districts --and understandably so in that the teachers are in a war zone everyday. But it's not good education the kids get there because they aren't interested in a good education. They haven't the sense to know that there is a correlation between hard work at school and economic success in life. And their families are too dysfunctional to help the kids get ahead -- that's why we need vouchers --so kids who are willing to work will have opportunity to aspire to private school standards of conduct, effort and attendance --or be expelled back to public school if they prefer to play the fool in school. <BR/><BR/>A few years ago, a class valedictorian known for her nationally acclaimed poem --stopped attending her city school for the last quarter or so of her senior year --all the teachers knew it --but they just graduated her with honors anyway. <BR/><BR/>Solution --teachers stop clamoring every year for raises in the contracts! You get raises automatically in the step increases of your contract as it is.Barbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05016832868807957194noreply@blogger.com