My husband and I recently bought a house. We had two criteria for selecting a town - we need to be near the airport (my husband's job causes him to travel excessively) and we wanted a great school district for our children.
The good school district also means that the housing prices are high. I've been thinking about the fact that this is a cycle of inflated housing prices which then provides more tax dollars to the schools which enables the schools to continue to to achieve high ratings and a great reputation, thus continuing to inflate the housing prices.
Looking at the other extreme, communities that are impoverished don't provide the high tax dollars to fund the schools so the schools don't have needed resources. This further deflates the house values in these communities and further diminishes resources to the schools.
So, the entire method of funding public schools through tax dollars is basically forcing inequity between school districts and making it that much more difficult for people to move out of impoverished communities or improve those communities. The whole model needs to be adjusted.
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
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1 comment:
Can't agree with you more! We pay way crazy tax rates but we have a great school system with everything our kids or teachers need. This same theme of funding inequity is discussed in the article "The Promise of Urban Schools". I wonder what it takes to revamp the system?
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