Income Tax Talk II

The Income Tax (Wage Tax) can be a very fair tax, if the politicians leave it alone. One rate for every dollar earned paid by everyone equally! This never happens as the politicians get greedy and then start putting in various qualifiers. The bigger problem is what they want to do with the money, give it to the state to run education.

The theory is if the state pays for education, every child in the state will receive the same level of education. That is somewhat true they will all receive the same level, unfortunately they will settle on a mediocre education. Let’s not forget that the State Government just spent the last 10 years discussing an “Adequate” education. Even the lowest socio-economic level crack head prays their child gets lucky and gets an “Awesome” education!

To get to an adequate education the state came up with $4500/student/year, meanwhile the state average is $10,650/student/year. It is costing the state $900 Million to provide adequacy, to get to providing an average education the state will have to raise and spend $2.1 Billion. What will it cost for the state to provide an “Excellent” education?

We are stuck with a 19^th century model of education. We still have kids in school on a farming schedule, has no one noticed that Ma & Pa aren’t home at 3pm, they aren’t home all of July and August, they aren’t home during all the various breaks throughout the year, they work or did until this year’s recession.

We have Multi-Million dollar facilities that are empty and unused for half the year. We have some teachers who are truly Master Teachers, yet we lay them off without unemployment benefits every summer. We have other teachers who even after many years they are still just average or below teachers. If this were a true professional artisan position and teaching is as much an art as it is a science, these teachers would be either gone or still treated as “apprentices”.

I personally would support an income tax to pay for education on one condition. The entire education system is reformed and restructured. Charter Schools, School Choice, Vouchers, Year Round School, Home Schooling Affiliations, and Technology Based Delivery systems are a few of the options that could and should be available to parents.

Comments

[Common Sense]

I do not have any kids. I am not using the educational system.

I want to keep as much as my money that I EARN as possible, and I have no obligation to pay for someone else's kids.

If this passes, I will not pay it. Come and take it, or try.

You want to pay income tax so badly? Move to Mass.

[NH INSIDER]

Thanks for the response Common Sense,

Did you actually read the whole thing ...

What do you think is the chance that this Democrat controlled state would reform education with School Choice, Charter schools, Vouchers, and Home Schooling support?

Pragmatic compromise is no longer used by todays politicians, too bad to.

Your argument is also a bit weak in the area of "I don't use it so I shouldn't pay" . In an ordered society the entire population is responsible, thus people who have never had a fire pay for fire trucks, never needed the cops pay for the police budget, don't use the highway but pay for it anyway!

Work Hard Have Fun!
Bob DeMaura