Listen to this articleI have always been against paying school tax to the county and city when I don’t have any children attending any school, anywhere.
I don’t think it is appropriate for adults who pay taxes, should be responsible to pay for someone else’s child to go to school. In Neshoba County, Mississippi, and probably everywhere taxes are collected, residents are charged a School Tax. This is regardless whither or not they have children attending public school. I’ll refer to School Tax as tuition for the remainder of this article.
I believe that tuition should be paid directly to the school instead of being collected by the County as “School Tax”. Don’t get me wrong. Doing this won’t remove a school’s ability to receive additional funding from the city, county, state, or even Federal.
This would further allow children to attend whatever school their parent chooses them to attend instead of being bound by a school’s attendance area. Parents wouldn’t have to lie about the address they use for their child to go to the school in the city (you know who you are) and if a child attends the city school, the tuition would go to that school and the same for the county school or even a school in another school’s attendance area in another city or county.
Doing so would also allow a student to attend a school closest to a parent’s workplace if chosen and will alleviate parents having to rush to get home after work to meet their children.
I would like to see a county and city do this as a trial and see if it improves the quality of education a student receives. If one school doesn’t challenge a student enough or offers a particular program for advanced education, it would allow the student to attend a school that does.
When I attended the public county school, I was academically bored. I was not part of the popular kids or the jocks. I wasn’t allowed by the school to be included in any of the extracurricular activities such as Beta club or play basketball. I was not challenged and being so, I was forced to attend an Alternative School (Reform School) when I acted out. That school was less challenging and competitive than the public school. It was more like a jail and corporal punishment was the catch-all for everything. Miss an answer on a test, you get a paddling. Talk out of turn, you get a paddling. Need to be excused from class, you get a paddling.
School Reform needs to happen soon and it needs to start now!