🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1992Oct4.163249.29299@sactoh0.sac.ca.us>, kberry@sactoh0.sac.ca.us (Kim A. Berry) writes:
> In article <BvL4JC.Gq5@well.sf.ca.us> rchao@well.sf.ca.us (Robert Chao) writes:

>>It is my impression that California schools' financial problems are
>>worse than other states' schools.
>>If that is true, why?
 
> If that is true I suspect that a primary factor is the high number
> of immigrants and the continued high birthrate of those immigrants.

Hardly. The bulk of school funding comes from local sources. Why
do you think that public schools in Orange County are so
different from  public schools in Pomona? 
 
> A dual income couple that owns home with one or two children pays
> several thousand dollars per year in state taxes. U.S. born
> residents are more likely to fall into this category.
 
> Families that rent apartments or double up in housing or have a
> large number of children pay far less in state income and property
> taxes, and if they receive food stamps or welfare, they receive
> more then they contribute. Immigrants disproportionately fall into
> this category.
 
So what are you saying? That poor people shouldn't be able to get
a free public education? Or a good public education? Don't feel
threatened: a survey of public schools in areas with different
socioeconomic levels will show that you're merely reflecting the
status quo.

And I doubt that your claim that the woes are due to immigrants
would stand up to your claims. For one thing, they don't really
amount to that big a portion of the school population in most
areas, and the areas where they do would not be doing well anyway
since local tax revenues are rather low.

> Assuming an annual cost of $4000 to educate a student for a year,

Except of course that it's unlikely that poor districts can spend
anywhere near that per student since they don't have the money to
do so.

> it costs taxpayers $288,000 to provide K-12 education for a single
> family with six children. In spite of this impact, the state
> provides tax deductions based on the number of children. Clearly
> small families are subsidizing large families, and large families 
> -- due to immigration -- are more prevalent in California.

And childless people are subsidizing even more, no? Which is why
areas which have large numbers of senior citizens have low school
quality. (I've heard "My kids are out of school now, why the hell
should I vote for a tax increase?" far too many times.)
 
-dh