I Thought Everybody Paid School Taxes.

I was treated, today, in the local paper, with a letter to the editor that pointed out just how little people understand about economics and life in general. In this letter, the writer lamented about the high property taxes people have to pay. Why, some people have no children in  school, yet they must pay school taxes. It's so unfair. Then the writer lighted on another travesty of justice. Why not make renters pay school taxes, the writer wanted to know? Apparently it never entered the writers mind that renters do pay their share of school taxes, even if they don't have kids in school. Raise your hand if you think landlords don't calculate the property taxes into the rent they charge. But what about those folks who don't have kids and still have to pay school taxes? They pay school taxes to help pay for the schooling of the kids now. Back when they had kids, other folks without kids, helped to pay for your kids. What about those whose kids went to private schools? Why do their parents have to pay for public schools? Because educating everyone is the law and because it helps our entire economy. Because your children were privileged, doesn't excuse you, any more than renters are excused, from paying the school taxes. America needs to have all it's children educated. It was decided long ago that schools would be paid for by the communities they serve. If you want to change that, we could have the state or federal governments pay for the schools, but then your income taxes would go up. That and the state or federal governments would run the school instead of your local school board. There's always an easy answer  to every problem. It's just that the answer, generally, is not to your liking. And more often than not, isn't the solution to the problem anyway.