Posted on 09/07/2013 9:40:39 AM PDT by JoeProBono
FORKS TOWNSHIP, Easton Pa., - A Pennsylvania man who homeschools his children said he paid his $7,143 school tax in $1 bills to protest funding public education.
Rob Fernandes videotaped himself delivering the 7,143 $1 bills, along with 54 cents change, to the Forks Township municipal building and explaining his reasoning to tax collector Anne Bennett-Morse, Philly.com reported Friday.
"I'm not doing this to make anybody's life more difficult," Fernandes can be seen telling Bennett-Morse in the video.
Fernandes said he sees the money taken for school taxes as "stolen."
"We homeschool our kids, so we don't even use the public school system, yet I'm being forced to pay all this money into a public school system that I don't use, don't want, don't need. And I don't think that's really either fair, just or even ethical," he said.
"It would be the equivalent if McDonald's were to force vegetarians to pay for their cheeseburgers," he said.
"I'm a big proponent of education," he said, adding that "education can be provided more efficiently in a free market."
Another reason:
Government schools destroy the environment! Really they do. Think about it.
If there was complete separation of school and state, families would not need to leave the cities to seek better schools for their children. Private schools would be freely available. People choosing to live in the environmentally fragile hinterlands would have to **pay** for the privilege of sending their child to a Prussian-model school!
As the government schooling deteriorates in the inner cities and surrounding suburbs, families ( rationally) move further outward seeking a better school setting for their children. They ( rationally) do not want their children **forced by threat of police and court action** into dangerous schools.
No matter where parents choose to live government schools are quickly built to accommodate their wishes. Country towns with one or two traffic lights grow into busy suburbs. Two lane highways become 6 lanes. Strip malls spring up. Farmland is chewed up. And...The big yellow school buses chug along with their cargo.
My husband and I like to ski in the West ( specifically Colorado and Utah). Inevitably, there is the big yellow school buses huffing and puffing up to the highest peaks to fetch children living in homes that sit on land that was once fragile and delicate alpine tundra.
Where I grew up there were volunteer fire dept. And though you have never had the police to your residence, that does not mean you have never utilized their services (report an accident?)
As a (L), there are VERY few ‘community’ fees (police, IMHO, being one of the few). But, I abhor ANY/all ‘property taxes’, everything should come from the service user themselves (schools, utilities, etc.)
Heh heh! I saw what you did there! I would just love to see a bunch of conservatives disguised as eviro weenies protest at a school board using that logic as a theme of protest.
(images of sputtering school board officials...”but but we love and teach environmentalism in our schools”)
I didn't dance. I simply pointed out that each state has it's own rules. We're supposed to have a weak central government, and leave the rules to the states. That way, if you don't like the rules in one state, you move to another that has compatible rules with you're liking. Some states have no sales tax. Some have low income tax. Some have low property tax.
As far as your question, unfortunately, the services provided by municipal governments have to be paid predominently by the local population. Police, fire, roads, sewers, and yes, even schools. As much as I hate the results of the public education system, it is a service that is provided for all to utilize, if they choose to. You apparently have not chosen to have children - so be it.
I have no idea what you make, so I can't compute a percentage, based on what your township spends. The system is set up based on local property values and setting tax rates to cover the cost of running the schools and providing the other local services. If you can't afford to live in a town that provides a ton of services, or spends a ton on schools, you have three options; 1) Get involve and change the spending habits of your town (highly unlikely to succeed where you'd see a difference in what you pay); 2) pay the taxes levied; or 3) move. It really is that simple. Venting on FR will not change the outcome, or your situation.
Maybe he's smart enough to do two things at once.
Both kinds of taxes pre-date the Constitution.
You have failed the test.
The answer was ZERO.
You are not entitled to a single cent of my income no matter what it is. The percentage of what should be taken from one and given to the other is ZERO. The amount is ZERO. You do not deserve any amount from anyone for anything. Nor does anyone deserve anything of yours.
If it was a mutual service (Army, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard, etc..) Then that service I could see paying for, fire, police, that is what I should pay for, since I am protected in a general sense.
Schools are NOT in this category. Colleges are not in this category. A public LIBRARY is, the public has access to the books. But I can’t go into the public school, but I have to pay for it. I gain nothing, only the loss of income.
That is ONE years’ worth my FRiend.
EXACTLY !
I have never been able to quite understand this myself. You would think that folks would rebel against the idea of turning their progeny over for indoctrination...... to the same outfits that run the Post Office and the state D.M.V. But they blindly do this..... knowing that Fed-Ex and U.P.S. do a much better, more efficient and less costly job than the government could ever hope for.
As far as D.M.V. goes.....about the only they do is license drivers and automobiles but private insurance companies could do a much better, more efficient and less costly job of doing this as well. The companies found to be lacking in their licensing efforts would soon go bankrupt for lack of customers. This is the way the efficient free market works. Government has no inherent stake in whether or not you're a good driver......but insurance companies sure would!
If education were ever taken away from the bureaucrats and established as non compulsory you would see a private school on just about every street corner all competing for your education dollars....just like gas stations do for your vehicle needs. They go out of business if they do a poor job also.....and so would free market schools.
For the folks who want stupid kids (or think they can't afford it) and won't provide for their education? They would be few and far between.....but nevertheless....plenty of charitable organizations would exist and plenty of endowments for just this purpose would also be available.
Actually....if education were left to the free market and any and all government control or regulation were discontinued.......you would probably find that the weekly cost would be less than your toilet paper budget.
But.....still there would be folks who would insist upon having stupid kids! No different from now.........but their neighbors would not have to subsidize their stupidity.
School boards are elected. That is your “representation.”
Dont like the taxes? Elect different school biard members
Just curious, do you believe there should be a public school system? If so, how should it be funded? If not, how should childen get their K-12 education?
ps - it it weren't for children that grew up to join the work force, your taxes would be out the a$$ to fund the military, infrastructure, and other "mutual" services.
You could have saved some typing and just said “I disagree with you. Oh, and I’m a jerk.”
I’m not against home schooling and public schools need major work.
Almost everyone you meet and work with is from a public school; your Dr, the engineer who designed the bridge you drive over, the cop and the fireman.
For anyone to argue that they don’t benefit from public education is stupid.
Tough crap. I don’t drive on all of the roads, but I still pay the taxes. I don’t use the fire department either. But I pay for that too.
It’s called a social contract, fool. Don’t they teach anything in that home school?
So that makes it right. I love people that justify their theft.
You’re right. Far too many people fail to realize that socialized schooling is the nation’s biggest entitlement program. Going back to a free market capitalist system would eliminate the entitlement and create schools for every segment of society and private charity would insure that everyone who wanted their children schooled would be able to.
It would also eliminate problems like celebrating Christmas and Easter in school. People who want that would have a choice of schools that provided that. Muhammadans would have schools that accommodated their beliefs, etc.
The cost of schooling would drop because competition would drive down costs. Good teachers would prosper because they would be in demand.
The challenge is getting people to willingly get off the government teat.
Used to be, many schools were private. My mom and dad went to the private Catholic school, they were super poor, the school was supported by the church, the kids that could pay, PAID, the ones that didn’t have any money or enough money were scholarship kids, and paid little or nothing. Public schools should be limited, to the poorest, and not be a major burden (7000 dollars is a huge hit) on the populace.
Some will try to justify it, but taking another persons money for the support of another person is theft, unethical, and socialist.
If we have a public school system it should be limited, for the poorest that can’t get any other education. But free school EVERYONE, ALL Children, that is wrong. Making me pay for it is wrong. All that stupid lottery money is to go to pay for education. Let that pay for it, if the parent is unemployed we could have them do community service to the school to offset some of the costs.
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