Wake Co. School Bond

The new Wake County school bond is very controversial right now. It would raise property taxes in order to build new schools. As an example of the increase, property taxes for a $200,000 home will be $94 more per year.

Are you telling me that people aren't willing to pay $94 a year to help educate the kids of wake county? Seriously? Good grief.

Of course, taxpayers should be pissed off, don't get me wrong. The real problem is that the state of North Carolina isn't giving Wake County what it needs. Mecklenburg County (Charlotte) is getting much more from the NC Education lottery than Wake County is, even though Wake county has more students. Wonder how that happened?

Here are the numbers:

Estimated proceeds: $1.2 billion a year, $425 million for Education.
Meck. Co. will receive an estimated $18 million/year, for 127,000 students.
Wake Co. will receive an estimated $9 million/year, for 127,767 students.

Apparently those folks against the bond are doing so for one of two reasons: #1, they just don't want to pay more in taxes; #2, they want to make a statement against the school board. For those who fall in category two, IMO you are justifiably pissed off at the school board for lots of reasons like forced busing, forced year-round, .etc. And how else are you to change anything? Damned if I know.

Did anyone see the 20/20 episode about the state of public education in the United States compared to education systems in other countries? John Stossel's famous "Stupid in America". Absolutely pitiful. Its good to know that some people are doing something about it. Unfortunately it seems like most people are afraid too do anything about it. But...why be afraid? It would be pretty hard to do worse.