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It is essential to support public education. Although four generations of my family are or have attended Catholic schools, I’m happy to pay my share. However, things are getting complicated in Ohio, where a progressive system topped off at 7.5% in 2004, has been reduced to 3.15% this year, and becomes a flat tax of 2.75% in 2026.
Filers of schedules C, E, F and K get a free pass on their first $250,000 of earnings. For example, a guy that owns a tax prep business making $100,000 pays no Ohio income tax, while his retired client earning the same, pays about $2,200.
Tax cuts have been paid for, in part, by cuts in spending for public schools. This has shifted costs to local school districts, who then must beg for property tax levies, and/or school district income taxes.
Additionally, Ohio now issues tuition vouchers for students in private schools. This further stresses public school budgets.
School districts in high income areas are benefiting, while those in poorer areas suffer.
Home owners are not happy, they feel the new system is regressive. School districts are having a hard time passing the levies.
I don’t know how this ends, but I know that all kids deserve the opportunity for a quality education, no matter the wealth of their home town.
Florida is wasting my taxes on charter schools run by donors to the politicians. Public schools are called that for a reason. Now they’re forcing public schools to give charter schools space for free.
Big money in charter schools. We all know what happens with big money and politicians.
I’m familiar with all of the arguments against property taxes. When I was on a condominium board owners would attend monthly meetings and some would whine and complain about this. They apparently expected someone else to pay for their benefits. Some pushed the agenda “I’m retired and on fixed income”. I published a list of where the taxes were allocated and what the percentages were.; I’d hand out copies when the subject surfaced. This didn’t end the complaints but it did reduce the amount of time the board spent as a punching bag. Apparently some owners didn’t bother to read the tax bill. Here’s the list of beneficiaries of the taxes collected:
County Pension fund
County Health Dept
Health Dept Pension fund
Forest Preserve District
Forest Preserve District Pension fund
County Airport
Township road
Township Pension fund
City
Park district
Park District Pension fund
City Mosquito District
Grade School District XX
Grade School Pension fund
High School District XX
High School Pension fund
Community College
The above I edited to remove the city and county names, township name, school district numbers and the names of the community college. My tax bill for the year I quoted was $2,789.46. I did not take the senior discount I was entitled to.
You should see what is being said on FB on this subject. The views people express are amazing. I wish I had your taxes, my new statement for rest of 25-26 is $13,905 a year and that’s a condo, not a house.
Public school funding mechanisms vary vastly across states. California caps the property tax rates but guarantees a minimum share of the state budget for K-14 education. School districts also turn to general bonds and special parcel taxes for even more funding. This hybrid funding mechanism leaves room for local control, reduces inequality but suffers from economic volatilities. California schools got just above $23K per pupil per year in 2024, compared to $15K in Texas. Whether homeowners or renters, all residents have a stake in supporting education in the shared journey toward a better future.
However, property tax in TX would be at least double what in CA. 2.5-3.0% is normal in TX.
Tax reductions proposals from politicians without reduction in government spending on popular programs is a recipe for disaster. When you have a politician shouting loudly about unions or greedy corporations, they are essentially promising their voters something for nothing. That won’t end well for the citizens they purport to represent since partisan blame game will follow!
I’ve never had kids or grandkids in the schools, and how other people’s children get educated really has no impact on my life, but I have always voted for every local education levy or bond that comes down the pike. I tell people it’s out of simple selfishness — to protect and enhance the value of my house.
When a community rejects a school bond, it makes headlines that proclaim a lack of local support for public schools, and any realtor will tell you that home buyers with children will steer away from that community towards one that does support school funding.
And the evidence for this is more than anecdotal. A 2020 study by the Harvard Kennedy School found that a 1 percent increase in school spending increases local house prices by 0.95 percent. An earlier study found that for every $1 increase in per pupil school expenditure, per pupil housing values increase by about $20.
School bonds in Washington state require a 60% supermajority to pass, and two-thirds of them fail. (They all get simple majorities, but there’s a maddening tendency to earn 59%.) So a minority of homeowners voting no to save a few hundred dollars in taxes may have cost themselves and the rest of us thousands in home values. Levies, fortunately, require only 50%.
This is, of course, just my selling point. Kids or not, I find it maddening on a personal level that this nation is slashing funding for school lunch programs and school infrastructure and, in my view, deliberately harming public education for reasons I cannot fathom.
“how other people’s children get educated really has no impact on my life”
Maybe not today, but what about in a few years when they can vote? When they can work and pay taxes, including SS taxes?
Much of what I read or hear about public education focuses on costs, who pays, how efficient it is or is not, and outcomes. Those are all valid concerns. But what about its value?
I prefer to live in a society in which all members have access to quality education. Tara Westover, the author of “Educated” said that education is not merely about job training, but about transforming into a new person with the confidence to stand up for oneself. And my favorite quote from her, while being interviewed by Bill Gates is “I think education is really just a process of self-discovery–of developing a sense of self and what you think. I think of it as this great mechanism of connecting and equalizing”.
I would add, and I’m sure its obvious to most already, that education never ends. I agree with you.
Excellent point. I would add a couple of other ‘self-oriented’ benefits to funding universal public education.
We all gain when businesses (and other hiring entities) have the opportunity to bring well-educated people into their organization. Public education makes better employees, better leaders, and permits a greater prosperity for our economy as a whole.
For the individual, education can bring the possibility of freedom so that person can pursue their life ambitions, fostering societal happiness.
Lots of questions about this. Starting with, how has the funding of Ohio schools over the last 15 years compared with the rate of inflation? Has there been any correlation between increases in money spent on schools and student achievement, e.g, graduation rates, test scores, post-secondary enrollment? How much is Ohio paying per student today vs 15 years ago? The increases in spending, if any, over the last 15 years – where have they gone? Special programs that benefit certain groups of students? Money allocated to general student population? Or administrative positions? Other?
Public schools must be funded appropriately. We need to make sure our children are prepared to be successful in life. But there also needs to be accountability. How do we objectively measure whether we have the right amount of money going to public schools? What’s that yardstick?
NC has a flat tax and is trying to lower it more. It is currently 4.25%. Schools are impacted a lot. NC has been pushing charter schools, funded by the state, and are tuition free and have more autonomy than public schools. They are popular. There are presently over 200 of these and the list is growing every year.
Schools beg for money from the counties and are successful in the affluent counties. But poorer rural areas suffer from low funding. Teacher pay is an issue statewide.
The anti-tax movement coupled with the cry for smaller government is not going to end well. Social media is full of anti-property tax memes and comments, especially, but not only for age 65 plus.
Somehow people equate paying off a mortgage with no longer paying property taxes. Some claim they don’t actually own their home because they must pay property taxes. Many comment that if they don’t have children, they don’t have to pay for schools.
They are creating the erroneous impression that many seniors lose their homes for non-payment of property taxes-which is very rare.
Property taxes have funded local schools since the 1840s and suddenly that’s no good. But I have yet to hear a viable alternative to funding local communities.
It’s like there is no connection between what society needs and wants and what it takes to pay for it. We are not in a good place.
Take a look at this
https://quinnscommentary.net/2025/10/27/damn-those-property-taxes%F0%9F%A4%91/
I agree with most of what you have written Dick.
Regarding: “Property taxes have funded local schools since the 1840s and suddenly that’s no good.” This was an era of an agrarian society where land was the best indicator of wealth. This is no longer the case. But you are correct someone smarter than me, which is most humans, need to come up with an alternative mechanism.
To some extent, but where most people lived in the northeast it was industrialized.
Property taxes provide a stable income stream for communities more so than sales or income taxes could. Some research suggests that not using property taxes would destabilize communities, their schools and housing market.
The outcry to change seems to be coming from seniors who could have benefited from reading HD more while younger.