I do not normally blog about public education in our fair county, but this one was impossible to ignore.
Terry Grier:
"I really believe that the time has come in North Carolina for school boards to have the authority to raise taxes and to establish revenues for schools"
Bye bye, Terry.......don't come back now.
You hear?
(hat tip: N&R, via Piedmont Publius)
Actually Bubba this is almost the way it is done here in Texas. We have what is called Independent School Districts who set a tax rate inorder to fund schools operations and building of new schools. There is no tax for schools included in our property taxes and we do not pay a state income tax.
ReplyDeleteIt was found that ISD's actually do a better job of managing the money for schools than the counties do. Some schools within a county where there was a low tax base received very little help in the way of more than minimal funding. Once the ISD's were established they were allowed to set a tax base for that particular schoold district. What I have seen, it works very well. New schools are being built in every new development for the most part and few go lacking for anything necessary to operate a school system. I will admit that when I received my first tax notice (at closing) I almost suffered sticker shock. But again after seeing the results where the ISD's are responsible for the spending of the money collected from property owners, I am very well satisified. It beats the heck out of what I say during my tenure in Greensboro and in WNC.
If it was my decision to make, I wouldn't let our current Guilford County school board have control of ANY money.
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