Friday, August 17, 2012

Abolish School Boards

Maybe I'm just overreacting to the latest  news that that the US Secret Service served subpenas on the Wilkes-Barre Area School Board again but I have never understood why we elect a group of people to run our schools.  They don't get paid and in our neck of the woods 3 of them have gone to jail just in the W-B Area district. The primary purpose of members of school boards seems to be to get their relatives hired as teachers and other positions and in some cases taking a gratuity to help someone get a job.

I understand that the primary funding for schools in PA comes from the property tax so local people should have a say on how the money is spent.

So I propose that the funding mechanism for schools be taken over by the state by reforming the property tax system by exempting the first $250,000 of assessment and raising the income and sales taxes to cover the difference. Then hire professional educators and administrators to run the schools many of which are already in place.

I know that many details  of my proposal needs to be worked out but I think we really need to have a discussion on school financing and administration.

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