I had a conversation with a co-worker yesterday that has been gnawing at me. We both live in Franklin Township. He and his family have lived there all their lives. We moved in to the township five years ago because of the schools even though the taxes were high. A shock to those Republicans out there, we chose to pay higher taxes so our boys would be in better schools. One or two years ago they capped the property taxes at 1% which is all well and good for our wallets, but it means the schools have less money, which means cuts, which means referendums to try and raise more funds, which means votes, which means people voting down said referendums to hold onto an extra $200 a year, which means teachers losing their jobs, bigger class sizes, cuts in the arts, cuts in busing, extra fees for activities which were previously free, which means more referendums and more voting.
So let's review, taxes were slashed and while people lived in the township for years and years paying thousands more than others in taxes for the benefits of great schools, when they get a tax break they can't give back a fraction for education.
Now, back to the aforementioned conversation at work. The reason he voted against the referendum is because he was sending a message to the school corporation about how he felt about the football stadium they built. When asked how long ago the stadium was built, he said 11 to 13 years ago. Now I'm all for holding grudges, but the people responsible are no longer on the board. He has five kids in the school system and because he's still mad about a football stadium, he's going to vote against a slight increase in taxes which is still much less than we were previously paying.
Update:
After further conversation today, there is more to his argument. I still don't agree with him overall, but he and others want more transparency with how the funds will be spent, which is reasonable. Apparently there has been some wasteful spending, but again, you can't punish everyone for a few poor decisions. Rectify the issues and move forward.
This argument is at least better than my neighbor's who said, "I'd rather have the $200 in my pocket." Fool.
3 comments:
Your neighbor did not clarify but he actually meant everybody's $200 in his pockets.
I did read that they're eliminating art & music in ELEMENTARY only, Secondary would still have it. That still totally sucks, neighbor is stupid and township who vote against referendum that have kids are stupid too. Just wanted you to know. :)
You have stupid neighbors. Mine bring me tacos.
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