Of Tax-Based Edu-Damnation and Anti-School School Boards

by Clay Burell

Published January 07, 2009 @ 10:53PM PT

In yesterday's "Why Schoolwork Doesn't Have to Suck: Learning 2.0" post, Lu P. left a comment that serves as a great segué into another issue I've been planning to highlight. I'll let Lu say it since, as commenters here often do, Lu says it perfectly enough*:

I think it would also be beneficial to consider class inequality in this discussion. Often times it is real life inequality is reproduced in the web/virtual world.

Who has access to these technologies?

If it becomes a standard, who will be left behind?

This is especially relevant in U.S. public schools where funds come through property taxes, some schools are financially ready for this, others are not.

Bam: The issue: School funding via property taxes.

First, a question I sorely hope as many of you across the States can take a few seconds to answer: Since state and local funding of education differs from place to place, there's no way I can know offhand about places that serve as models of school funding that are more just, and less inequitable, than the property tax-based system so common across the country. So - do any of you live in districts or states, or know of them, that do serve as such models?

If you could share your knowledge here, that's a step towards change in itself. You've given an "If there, why not here?" argument to others whose districts might need it.

And second, school funding is another reason I'm going to re-bang the "get involved with your local and state school board politics" drum first banged here - because this blogger's post is an example of the non- (and perhaps anti-) educational motives that drive savvy private interests to run for school boards.

Sorry I have been so busy lately. Now is the time to think about running for your local school board. Monday is the deadline for getting in your petition signatures. For most school baords [sic] it will only take 100 voter signatures to get you listed on the ballot. . . .

Running for local school board is the best way to try and slow the increase in your property taxes. School districts usually get 65-75% of the property taxes you pay each year.

I hope I'm getting this writer wrong, that s/he has a vision for providing for schools, if elected, in order to improve them via alternative funding, but on the face of it, it seems like a "Vote for me for school board. I'll weaken schools to save you money, and social justice be damned" platform.

(And I encourage some healthy debate on how I framed the above in comments as well.)

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I'm still dashing to and fro here in Bangkok, so thumpity-thump-thump until next time. Off I go.

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*By the way, Lu's comment also serves as the perfect example of that "negotiation of authorial authority" I praised in that post - it challenges, questions, extends my words precisely how it can in classrooms, enriching the discourse as it does so.

Photo: Greed, by muffet on Flickr