Utterly Meaningless

I agree…wrong track. I have 9 kids, I don’t want tax breaks…I just want to be left the heck alone to raise my kids how I see fit. And I don’t feel the need to have TLC crawling up my butt everytime I have one.

I’m not sure there is anyway to do this and not have an inconsistency someplace. Is he advocating a tax break for those in private schools? What about retired people with no children? It doesn’t make any sense to elevate homeschoolers above these other people. They aren’t using the system either.

I think a more fair thing to do is to start charging tuition to “public” school students based on family income like they do the school lunch program. I think it’s written into state constitutions that all public education be free to anyone whether they could afford to pay for a portion of it or not. Do I have Thomas Jefferson to thank for that? Anyone know how the idea of a “free and public” education got started anyway? Other countries at least charge amounts for books and uniforms and such.

Myrtle, for a quick overview of the origins of government-administered schooling in America, I recommend:

“Compulsory Government Education: Origins and Solutions” (Rick Gee)
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A more in-depth treatment is the Mackinac Center for Public Policy’s “School Choice in Michigan: A Primer for Freedom in Education,” which is, as its title suggests, somewhat oriented toward the situation in Michigan, but provides a comprehensive overview of the evolution of g-school throughout the States.
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For a more in-depth history of schooling in America, read *The Underground History of American Education* (John Taylor Gatto), which is widely vailable in libraries and bookstores and is also available in its entirety online, here:
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Another good book that discusses the origins of g-school is *Separating School & State* (Sheldon Richman), which covers the origins of g-school in America and is available through libraries, bookstores, and here:
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It depends on what school district you’re in, as to whether or not you pay for your books and uniforms. My youngest siblings are charged for uniforms but not books, but are required to bring their own materials. The students in some of the districts we’ve been in, have been required to pay for books but not uniforms. Most places that make you pay for something, have an assistance program for poor families. And all of the districts I’ve lived in have pay-to-play for sports, which annoys the parents who are already paying quite a lot for the schools in other ways, and already supported the teams’ fundraisers. It’s one of the reasons that private dance teams and independent sports associations are so popular out here; they’re mostly filled with public school students, and homeschoolers have plenty of people to play against.

I don’t think my parents want a property tax credit — but they also vote “no” on every levy, especially since the district we live in spent $70 million for a high school that has marble floors but bad plumbing (ever hear 14 year olds who choose to complain about how plaster falling from the ceiling hits their heads between classes, instead of how their homeroom teacher confiscates their iPods?) The current levy is for $36 million for two elementary schools, and would add about $400 in property taxes for a $200,000 home (the current property tax level is already high, but my parents haven’t mentioned how much it is in recent months so I can’t say for sure what it is.) For two elementary schools, each accomodating an average of 630 students (they say there are supposed to be 730 new kindergarteners coming in this year — we’re in a bit of a boomtown.) My parents might have considered the property taxes a reason to home educate if they weren’t already doing it — and do, in fact, consider it a reason to move.