Compulsory Taxes For Compulsory Education

Mandeville, LA – Exclusive Transcript – I don’t have any problem with Andy in New York raising his own money and educating his own children as he sees fit.  By the same token, here in Louisiana, I am compelled to pay property tax, sales taxes, all manner of taxes on all manner of products, gasoline taxes, lottery taxes, all these taxes that amount to about $13,000 per year per pupil if you actually send your kids to a public school.  You almost have to, unless you are a notch above moderately wealthy, do what the state wants you to do and just be really involved in the public school and make it a quasi-private school.  Check out today’s transcript for the rest…

 

Begin Mike Church Show Transcript

Caller Andy:  On another note, I read a thing where a kid saved another kid’s life by wrestling a gun away from him on a bus.  They suspended this kid for a couple of weeks from school for being involved in an incident with a weapon.

Mike:  Because he wrestled what away from him?

Caller Andy:   He wrestled a firearm away from another student who was getting ready to shoot a student on the bus.

Mike:  They suspended the kid that wrestled it away for fighting?

Caller Andy:  That’s correct.  He was involved in an incident with a weapon and they suspended him.

Mike:  Oh, good lord.

Caller Andy:  It’s out of control.

Mike:  Stupid is as stupid does.

Caller Andy:  The other thing is, you’re right.  I’ve got five kids.  We homeschool them.  None of them have been to public school.

Mike:  I don’t think it’s fair — even though I am no longer a supporter or proponent of public schooling, we have to fix this by either doing what you’re doing, homeschooling, for those that can dedicate the time necessary to it, it’s a wise and admirable thing to do.  The other thing we have to do is break the State’s monopoly on children’s brains.  Right now, in every state in the union, the state acts as though the children are the property of the sovereign state until they are 18 years of age and they must, in a compulsory manner, attend schools.  You could say every child is entitled to an education.  This has nothing to do with being entitled to the right to pursue an education.  It has to do with whether or not I am going to be compelled to support someone else’s right to pursue an education.

I don’t have any problem with Andy in New York raising his own money and educating his own children as he sees fit.  By the same token, here in Louisiana, I am compelled to pay property tax, sales taxes, all manner of taxes on all manner of products, gasoline taxes, lottery taxes, all these taxes that amount to about $13,000 per year per pupil if you actually send your kids to a public school.  You almost have to, unless you are a notch above moderately wealthy, do what the state wants you to do and just be really involved in the public school and make it a quasi-private school.  The public school that my daughters go to is a quasi-public school because there are so many parents that are involved in that school.  The front office at school is basically run by the parents on a volunteer basis to save the school money.  You can say two things about that.  It’s great you have volunteers and parents that want to go in there.  By the same token, the citizens of this parish or county are certainly taxed enough where we ought to be able to afford office help in something like a school, but such is not the case.  My point is that where you find the most successful schools is not where you’re going to find the most amount of dollars that are spent per pupil; it’s where you’re going to find the most amount of parents that are involved in the school and in their children’s education, end of story.

Caller Andy:  You’re absolutely right, Mike.  I’ve got to tell you, they keep marginalizing us further and further. For instance, what they do is, my kids, even though we homeschool, they used to be able to participate in the school functions like if you’re kid wanted to play band, as long as he was a fifth grader and could come to the school during the fifth grade band session.  If he wanted to be on the swim team, he was allowed to come after school when swim practice met, and if he was good enough he could make the swim team.  Five years or so ago, they declared that homeschooling in essence was its own school district and no longer are the children allowed to use the facilities at the public school, even though I’m still compelled to pay the school and property taxes within the district that I live in.  My kids can’t even get the benefit of using the library.  They’re not allowed to use the pool.  They’re not allowed to join the teams anymore.

Mike:  You ought to sue, dude.  It’s not a public building.  It’s called a public building but it’s not a public building, only if you qualify and do what they tell you to do is it a public building.

Caller Andy:  It’s one of those things in the back of my mind, do I sue?  Do I have the time, the money, the effort?  I’m trying to run a small business, 80 or 90 hours a week there.  My kids are being nurtured and they’re doing well.  What battle am I picking?  Am I picking it only for my kids?  Now they’re almost trying to make it where you have to have some sort of teaching certificate if you want to homeschool.  That’s been passing in California and it’s heading east, of course.  They’re just further digging their hooks in.

Mike:  Andy, thank you very much for your very entertaining phone call.  God bless with the homeschooling.

End Mike Church Show Transcript