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I am a big supporter of public education. After much deliberation I voted for measure five, primarily because it contained a provision that required the legislature to ensure that education continued to be funded at the same level that it had been. This to me meant that the burden of funding education was imply being shifted from property taxes to general fund and that the legislature would need to prioritize education funding higher than it was at the time. That seemed appropriate.

Unfortunately, it didn't work ut that way. the legislature simply did not fund education at the same level. When I called my legislators (Gail Sibley and Kate Brown) they told me that it is "impossible" to do that and that I should have known it would be impossible. That, of course is simply not true.

Now, 20 years the wiser, I better understand that these elected officials will do whatever they darn please, regardless of what we tell them. And like fools we keep electing the same people.

What I find most difficult to understand is that my property taxes, in real dollars, have never gone down year over year. Yet funding for education has-- how can that be?

I agree with the premise that public education should be a primary use of general fund dollars. I also agree that the people who run the education systems should say how much is enough. If they would do that I would fight hard to help them get it. 

However, I also agree that public education does not need to include everything that is included. Why is it my responsibility to teach English as a second language in a country where the primary spoken language is English?

One of your guests said there are children for whom we spend $250,000 per year to educate. Really? It doesn't seem to me that we should be doing that if we can't afford to provide the basics. And just what does that entail, anyway? A quarter million dollars for one child leaves a lot of room for waste.

Despite Measure 5 I now (due to difficult financial circumstances) have to pay more in property taxes that I did in federal and state income taxes COMBINED. What's up with that?

Sign me,

misled and really frustrated

posted 2 years, 7 months ago
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