If you pay the guy at the sawmill for boards because you want to or pay the same amount in taxes that goes to teacher salary....it does not do the same amount of good for the economy.
I suppose one might argue that education jobs add less value to the economy - than say sawmill jobs.
Fair enough - but the "Loss" being report by the out-of-state economist is over-stated (he treats the tax as a total loss). If we're talking about jobs, and jobs only, tax dollars are not a total loss (which is what they're saying). Tax dollars create government jobs.
If we're talking "utility" to the economy - that's different (classical economics - which I studied ).
A central tenet of classical economics is that government intervention of any kind generates a net loss in utility.
As I said - I won't support the proposition. It's a band-aid for a gunshot wound. Additionally, as a homeschooler, I spend about 10 percent of what my local district spends per student - and I get substantially better results, as measured by CSAP, ACT, and PSAT.
I'll be voting no. Every damned tax increase that's supposed to benefit the schools never helps the situation, but the taxes remain. They need to learn to live within budgets like everyone else.
As I said - I won't support the proposition. It's a band-aid for a gunshot wound. Additionally, as a homeschooler, I spend about 10 percent of what my local district spends per student - and I get substantially better results, as measured by CSAP, ACT, and PSAT.
Exactly- Funny how parents who have a interest in their kids education seem to be able to get the job done for pennies on the dollar- compared to the government schools. I know a few of my friends and neighbors also do the homeschool and they don't spend anywhere near 12 grand a year- and their kids are very well educated.
The studies and statictics also show that for decades now- the argument that more money and smaller class sizes they claim was needed - was not needed. The test results show no improvement over the years - all the years we kept throwing more money at the problem.
In a private business- if you threw a bunch of money at a problem with no results, the profit motive would dictate that you would stop doing what does not work, or find another way that does work. Not so in a public school where the decision makers are also the people who benefit from keeping things the way they are.
Just because we can tax a community and employ a government worker- should not be the only reason for doing so. Hiring more teachers has not been shown to result in a better education for kids. We could hire enough teachers so every student has a teacher, but the benefit to the community would be zero- the only benefit would be to the teachers who got a cushy government job.
An efficient economy does not create jobs for the sake of jobs- it uses that force to create wealth. Businesses are always looking for the best balance for their buck, government does not concern itself with those issues. The teachers union is not concerned either- they exist for the benefit of teachers- not the taxpayers.
SS109 wrote: Looks like Prop 103 is going down, but voter turnout is a key in off year elections. Will the teachers union get their voters out?
You know they will- which is why it's very important for every taxpayer to vote today. I'll be hand carrying my ballot to the drop box, this way I know it got that far at least.
Hard to tell if your vote was counted in a mail in election.
If the poll for this thread is any indication of the community as a whole- we taxpayers should be able to beat this tax increase. I sure hope so, because you know every teachers union member will be voting for it.
Also- The City of Denver will be voting today to require ALL businesses to provide health insurance to their employees.
Since I no longer have any business interests in the City- I secretly hope this one passes. I just want to see the stampede of businesses tripping over each other - trying to get out of the City limits as fast as possible.
It would just about guaranty no more jobs created in Denver - at least till the next election, in fact the City would lose thousands of jobs almost instantly.
Should be good news for commercial real estate in the surrounding area though!
