An Argument against School Vouchers

You want your kids in private school than you pay for it. The gall of all these people talking about their tax dollars should go where they want it to go. Or worse yet, a TAX REFUND if they send their kids to private school.

I have no kids but I still pay taxes to keep up the school sysytem. How fair is that? You should pay more taxes if you have kids in school. There are already so many tax breaks for parents and people want more.

As far as the original argument in this thread. I would counter that your tax dollars do not come with strings attached. You still have your representation because you can vote in reps who can control or repeal the voucher program.


Havent some places been using vouchers? How is it working out?
 
Tmy said:
You want your kids in private school than you pay for it. The gall of all these people talking about their tax dollars should go where they want it to go. Or worse yet, a TAX REFUND if they send their kids to private school.
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Why is a tax refund worse? It's their money! If they choose not to participate in the school system, why should they be forced to pay for it?

As far as the original argument in this thread. I would counter that your tax dollars do not come with strings attached.
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Interesting. Meantime, in the real world... :rolleyes:
 
shanek said:


Why is a tax refund worse? It's their money! If they choose not to participate in the school system, why should they be forced to pay for it?
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I should get a cash vocher for not having any kids. Or I should pay less taxes for not using the school system.
 
Tmy said:
I should get a cash vocher for not having any kids. Or I should pay less taxes for not using the school system.
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I'm not going to disagree with that.

And here we reach the logical conclusion: user fees charged to those who actually benefit from the school system. This influx of competition into the system just might force the government schools to actually (gasp!) improve their services!!! :eek:
 
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shanek said:


Okay, I agree with that 100%. In fact, the tax refund for sending your kid to private school or homeschooling them was one of my campaign issues.



Public schools are answerable directly to the public, as our schools were before the 1950s or so. Government schools are run by the government, and so you have to go through the government to affect any change.
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Ok, then what about the people without children? And does this tax refund consist of just the money earmarked for schools or what each child costs the system? If the reund is for what each child costs the system, then wouldn't that be essentially stealing from people with no school age children?

Any school board members who don't think that they answer to the people are going to be unemployed after election time. I can go to my local and state school board website and see what's going on. Is there an equivilant for the private schools which accept vouchers?
 
Tmy said:
As far as the original argument in this thread. I would counter that your tax dollars do not come with strings attached. You still have your representation because you can vote in reps who can control or repeal the voucher program.
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Yes, my tax dollars come with strings.

Right now, I can lobby my local and state school boards even if they laugh at me. I could even run for a place on my local school board. I probably wouldn't get elected having no background in education, but I could still give it a shot. I can visit the school board's websites and see where my money goes.

Once my tax money goes into vouchers, then what? I can't lobby a private school, can I? I can't run for a place on their committee, can I? I don't get to see how my money is spent, do I?

Sure, I have some control over the reps, but I have that now. After school vouchers, I will have much less representation per tax dollar that I'm still paying into the system. What's the matter with wanting to hold onto the rights that I have?
 
you have some control

well, I think taxpayers have some control. But, really, any non parent stands little chance of being elected to the school board.

Then if you are lucky enough to get on the school board, you run into this little thing called the Union.
 
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dmarker said:
Ok, then what about the people without children? And does this tax refund consist of just the money earmarked for schools or what each child costs the system?
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The one I proposed was based on the percentage of tax dollars the schools used. So, if schools took 20% of the tax money for funding, you would be able to get back up to 20% of your taxes for paying directly for the tuition of a child, or homeschooling your child.

There are other suggestions, which I think are good, too. Our state LP wants a $3,000 per child per year tax refund, so you got more money for supporting more than one child. (Notice the child does not have to be yours.)

If the reund is for what each child costs the system, then wouldn't that be essentially stealing from people with no school age children?
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Isn't that whay we're doing anyway?

Any school board members who don't think that they answer to the people are going to be unemployed after election time.
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Unfortunately, school boards nowadays are severely limited in what they can and can't do by state and local governments.

I can go to my local and state school board website and see what's going on. Is there an equivilant for the private schools which accept vouchers?
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Yes, private schools have boards and parent/teacher associations.
 
dmarker said:
Once my tax money goes into vouchers, then what? I can't lobby a private school, can I? I can't run for a place on their committee, can I? I don't get to see how my money is spent, do I?
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This is an excellent point.
 
Re: you have some control

kittynh said:
well, I think taxpayers have some control. But, really, any non parent stands little chance of being elected to the school board.

Then if you are lucky enough to get on the school board, you run into this little thing called the Union.
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But I can run, whether elected or not doesn't really matter because I retain the right to try.
 
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shanek said:



Yes, private schools have boards and parent/teacher associations.
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But would they allow a childless person to run for the boards or join the parent-teacher associations?
 
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dmarker said:


But would they allow a childless person to run for the boards or join the parent-teacher associations?
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For the boards, maybe; it would depend on the by-laws, I guess. The PTA, probably not.
 
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