MrFixIt - 04 May 2008 03:14 PM
Jason - 03 May 2008 11:08 PM
MrFixIt - 03 May 2008 07:15 PM
I am curious, just how much does it cost to educate one child in the SESD per year? I am glad the services are not traded on the mercantile exchange (like gasoline). Just seems that we will see a few more foreclosures in the area. Too bad our out of touch State Reps can’t see there way clear to restructuring the tax system and give us poor folk a break. Exeeding the rate of inflation is asking a bit much (poor Dallastown and Red Lion). Can anyone please tell me how and when the school boards were given the tax authority they have? I feel like having a “tea party”.
According to this link it is $9836 per student. http://www.swingingsammy.com/schools/20052006ADMexpenses.html. Where Southern is $10497. Southern and SESD are about the same size. Just for comparison purposes I looked up another school district I happen to know is about the same size - Jim Thorpe in Carbon County (I’m from there originally), it is $11975. Extremes from a quick visual inspection alone are Chestnut Ridge SD at $9057 and Richland SD at $27106. I don’t know how big Chestnut and Richland are.
As for the School Board and taxation issue I was born and raised in PA so I assumed it was “always” this way. I’d like to know that history as well.
Interesting though, some things I would be curious about: What do you propose should happen to change the current system? How familiar are you with PA politics? Where do you think the money will come from and where do you think the money will end up if the state takes over funding? Do you think it is the responsibility of the the state to pay to educate the children of your community? Do you think it is politically possible that SYC school districts will get the $$ it deserves or is owed to it from the state? Do you think if the $$ filters down through the state before it gets to the schools the cost per student will go down? Do you consider shifting the funding up to the state a conservative move or a liberal move - politically speaking anyway?
Nothing is free Jason, I understand that. The tax structure is just different in PA. Some other states collect funds for eductaion in different ways instead of a “school tax”. Somewhat the same with the “earned income” tax. I could see the state or county actually handling the revenue and administration of the schools. Add a sale tax on clothes for use in education.
As far as 13K + to educate a grade or high school student seems steep due to the fact it costs about the same for a collage education.
Assuming all the per student numbers on that site are calculated consistently then Richland is likely paying about $35,000/student right now and Jim Thorpe is probably up around $15,000+. Regardless we are still at the low end. I have friends in MD who are paying $27,000/year to send their kids to private kindergarten. I am sure there is some waste at SESD, there is in all large organizations. But if you think you could drastically cut your tax bill by looking for unnecessary spending, well let me put it to you this way, if it was possible, it would be done in at least some of the other 500+ school districts across the state. I’ve seen different school boards across the state wrestle with this for years.
Also, if you want to increase the $$$/student, the best way to do it is to hand things over to the state. Not only will the state bureaucrats skim what they need to off the top but most importantly, I don’t care what kind of formula they claim to come up with, after being born and raised in the state and living somewhere in the state for all but a handful of years, I could tell you that most of the $$$ is going to end up in three places: Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and the Lehigh Valley. PA is a huge state. This is not MD. We are not the politically powerful Baltimore suburbs. Just look at the state’s transportation budget. In the grand scheme of things Southern York County just is not that important to the folks in Harrisburg; and why should it be, some of my neighbors know who the governor of MD is but not the governor of PA. Another thing that is important to realize is that if the state takes over paying for the schools, taxes of some across the state will actually go up. These are likely going to be the people who could least afford it; and since they are not in any of the three areas I mentioned above, their schools in the long run will likely end up with less.
In some cases, there are also traditional and cultural reasons why, for instance, it would be politically difficult to combine some smaller districts that are close together into larger ones which is something the state would inevitably want to do. Mt. Carmel and one or two of its surrounding districts come to mind.
Finally, I think any politician that claims this is even politically possible in PA is just pandering and blowing smoke. I really think it is ridiculous when so-called ‘conservative’ politicians claim they want to turn the schools over to the state. Granted I didn’t study it, but when I looked SESD’s budget over, I did notice a lot of the money in the long run seemed to go to all the usual suspects: transportation and oil companies, banks in the form of interest, health insurance companies, and regular insurance companies. After you remove the waste, and I would still be willing to bet removing the waste will not put a significant dent in our tax burden, somehow you have to address these issues which are systemic problems across the country and I don’t think they will be fixed anytime soon. Unfortunately I think we are all banging our heads against the wall again and again if we keep trying to solve PA’s problems by imposing MD solutions.
