Thursday, April 11, 2013

If I hear, my taxes should follow my student, one more time, I will gag

This inane letter was in the Miami Herald

Bright Futures has some explaining to do. Homeschooled students are required by Bright Futures to score 100 points higher on the SAT than students from public schools when qualifying for funds, and even then they are put at the back of the line for consideration, according to their representative who said, “I can see that your son is a good test-taker, and you submitted your application early, but it doesn’t matter. Home-schooled students are last to be considered.” My property taxes were used to pay for some other child’s education while we taught our kids without the aid of tax dollars, and now my child is being discriminated against? Bright Futures, you may want to discuss that one with your lawyers.

Robert Fountain, Miami Beach

If you follow education you hear the, I pay taxes why can’t I use that money to pay for where I want my student goes to school, argument frequently. It’s ridiculous. People who don’t have kids pay taxes as do people whose kids have graduated. The taxes we ALL pay for education are supposed to benefit all of society, not follow an individual child. Say you don’t like your local public schools, then you should feel free to home school or to send your kid to a private school but what you shouldn’t do is expect the rest of society to subsidize your choice.

This is also another reason that the parent Trigger Bill is such a terrible idea. Public schools are the public’s assets, all of ours whether we have a child attending a public school or not. The trigger however gives a small group of people the power to give away that which belongs to all of us. That should be unacceptable.

As for the bright future program discriminating against this guy’s kid, if he really thinks he deserves some cash from us because he pays the same taxes that everybody else does, I worry about the level of education his child received and a hundred points hirer on the SAT sounds fair.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/04/10/3336305/florida-bright-futures-scholarship.html#storylink=cpy