FREE NEWSLETTER
Go to main Forum page »
Consider this post on social media.
“Today we are paying our North Carolina real estates taxes, which are significant. I don’t have a problem with paying my fair share. This year, I DO have a problem that some of my tax dollars are being doled out to pay for private school vouchers for private schools! And some of the people getting those vouchers have incomes over $100,000.”
I asked if they were missing part of the equation. “Like what?” was the reply.
Well, the person using private schools also pays property taxes to fund public schools so – by choice – they are paying twice. However, there is a saving to the public schools when a child does not attend.
Logically the parent using a private school should not be paying for public schools, but that doesn’t work so transferring the public school savings to the private schools seems fair. My view is not shared by many that I can find. This is an issue in many states, but are we able to view it objectively?
In some areas there are movements to exempt seniors from paying school taxes. In our 55 plus community we all pay school property taxes and needless to say there are no children plus nearly all the residents did not live in this town before moving here when they did have children in school. Of course, we should pay. That’s what makes the system function.
But fair is fair. We seniors pay the same taxes as everyone else but the town won’t plow our street or repair the road as they say it’s technically private.
All’s fair in love and taxes.
The main issue I have with private schools is that they can expel “trouble makers” and kids with “special needs”.
Where do THOSE students end up?
In public schools that might be able to expel the “trouble makers”.
But they HAVE to educate the kids with “special needs”. Here in one of the “collar counties” of Northeastern Illinois, public schools must, by law, pay ALL THE EXPENSES of “special needs” students until they turn 21.
A friend of ours, who worked in the Administrative Offices of our local school district, told us that parents are easily willing to spend tens of thousands of dollars on lawyers so that the public schools – paid for us taxpayers – have to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars babysitting their kids.
I live in NC and am a big fan of charter schools. They are very popular (except by the school unions and bureaucracy), do not have the same constraints and generally perform better.
I understand the objection for vouchers for private or religious schools. Our church has a school with K thru 12. We do not get any funding from govt. Most private schools in our county are so expensive (think college tuition) that any voucher would be a small fraction of the tuition.
I think competition for the public school system is a good thing that will hopefully result in improved performance.
I’ve never had kids, but I always pay school taxes with enthusiasm and vote for new taxes and bonds, for the most base of reasons — personal greed, in terms of the value of my home. Quality public schools attract families to a community, and school funding drives property values. A 2020 study by the Harvard Kennedy School found that a 1 percent increase in public school spending increases local house prices by 0.95 percent. An earlier study found that for every $1 increase in per pupil public school expenditure, per pupil housing values increase by about $20. So even those of us without children in the public schools benefit from public school funding.
There is no such documented correlation between private school voucher spending and local property values. It would in fact be fair to assume an inverse relationship, because private school voucher spending often pulls tax dollars away from public schools.
And I am vehemently opposed to the expenditure of my tax dollars on private church-based schools, not based on Jeffersonian church/state principles but because I deeply resent my tax dollars going to support classes teaching a faith that is not mine.
Interesting correlation using spending. I know towns in my area with higher property taxes, high spending per child for schools and at the same time dismal results as measured by proficiency scores – among the lowest in the state while spending is up with the best performing districts.
Proficiency scores are only one small part of the picture. Parents also want schools with quality facilities and sufficient capacity, art and music programs, and solid college preparatory records (which often do not correlate with standardized test scores). And they seek out communities which support such features with funding, which in turn has a positive affect on property values.
The town where I grew up and went through school now has a STEM school. The reported math proficiency in that school is 22% Something is very wrong. Seems to be form over substance.
In my area, private schools are open to the public, similar to how private country clubs are open to the public. Is that not the case in some places?
I believe I am correct in saying that in the US “private” schools charge fees, “public” schools do not. The meaning of “public” school is different in the UK – think Eton, Harrow, etc.
Thanks I understand now. We’re talking about privately funded schools versus government funded schools.
They all accept members of the public, but the privately funded schools are paid for by particular individuals spending their own humble dollars on their own children while the government funded schools are paid for through taxation where we spend other people’s money on other people‘s children – when we don’t have children of our own in those schools.
I support publicly funded schools and I’m glad people can pay for their own schooling privately if they choose to do that. There seems to be a good mix here in the US.
I think it’s fair that we retirees pay school taxes, I think it’s a very good investment.
I came up through the Catholic school system, as did my kids and grandkids. I do not have a problem with those parents getting some help in the form of vouchers, however I think it should be needs based.
I know there are some good for profit schools, but I don’t think tax payer money should be doled out to private entities.
In what way are Catholic schools not private entities?
I mean that they are not “for profit” private entities.
Two problems with school vouchers:
The money is often used for religious schools, so much for separation of church and state.
The less money that goes to public schools the worse they will get and the more people will want to send their kids to private school, creating a downward spiral.
I live in North Carolina and I want my taxes going to public, not private schools. Thanks to extreme gerrymandering the situation is unlikely to change .
Regarding your first objection, the US Supreme Court has on multiple occasions found that what matters with vouchers is who makes the choice to allocate the money — parents and guardians — not the nature of the school receiving the money.
I see your second objection from the perspective of someone who taught in both a private Catholic school in a low-income area and a high-performing public charter school where a significant number of families’ income was such that they qualified for free and reduced lunches. I also had the privilege of leading the charter school as principal for several years. Of course school funding is important, but it is often well down the list of reasons why schools fail to educate well. Per capita spending for K-12 students in cities such as Washington, DC, and New York City exceeds most districts in the US, yet a majority of their students score well below proficient in reading and math. In Baltimore City — another big-spending district — just 15% of students scored at or above the proficient level in reading in 2022. Money is not the answer to everything in K-12 education.
Private (yes, usually religious) and charter schools often represent a lifeline to families, especially low-income families. Why should those families be forever chained to big-spending schools that fail to educate year after year? Well-to-do families certainly aren’t.
The challenges faced by low performing, high spending districts are rooted in poverty and family disorganization. Adequate funding of public schools is a necessary but not sufficient condition for quality education for all children. Public funding of private schools saps dollars from public schools. I write as a now-retired former public school teacher, university faculty member, and former k-12 parochial school student. My children are grown; I willingly support taxation to support public schools.
Amen
Is that the Supreme Court with a majority of Catholic members? Sorry, but I don’t find them an impartial arbiter these days.
The decisions forming the basis for the constitutionality of school vouchers span several decades. They predate the current Court.
Same in Florida. A neighboring public school district didn’t pay their share of taxes to private/charter schools and now they’re having to pay punitive damages.
A lot of people feel as you do. But transferring a portion of taxes as described is a far cry from what the Constitution actually says about religion and says nothing about separation of church and state. Whenever this issue arises, I look at my money and wonder how that works.
“Render unto Caesar…” Money raised by the government (local, state, etc.) should not be given to a religious entity. They are already tax exempt.
Not sure how one relates to the other, but isn’t it interesting that by making churches and their property tax exempt we are doing just that giving them tax dollars.
In NJ there is a town where many of the citizens hold religious classes in their home and then claim a tax exemption and get it because nobody dares to challenge them. So many are doing it the town is in trouble revenue wise.
I believe money ie taxes should not be used to fund anything which is private such as charter/religious schools, nor plowing private roads “in the name of public safety” which are problems in New Hampshire. Public money ie taxes are for use for betterment of the community, not for individuals. No one should be entitled to a rebate of a portion of their taxes, due to support the community, to pay for an any private activity. If they want to send their children to non-public schools let them pay with additional non-obligated funds.
A recent letter to the editor in a paper here gives the example that in NH each student that leaves results in a loss of four thousand dollars. They gave an example that if 100 students leave a school district 400,000 dollars is taken from the school district. If only 2 students per grade are taken from each of the K-12 grades in each of four schools you still have to employ the same number of teachers. There are no cost savings.
The end result is you have the same costs, but now the an additional 400,000 dollars has to be raised via an increased tax rate.
That would seem true only if the entire school taxes per taxpayer were transferred out of public system. At some point the schools expenses have to drop if attendance drops. Not an easy issue.