by Al Benson Jr.
The recent article in the "El Paso Times" in El Paso, Texas read: "Hard on the heels of a tax-increase request by the El Paso Independent School District, officials at the Ysleta Independent School District are talking about floating a $160 million bone issue this spring. The district's plans have some significant differences but the common denominator is asking for a tax hike during volatile economic times in which people are struggling financially in a number of ways." At the risk of sounding slightly cynical, how many of these government school districts really even think about the average man's financial problems when they decide they need more untold millions of our tax dollars? The tax-paying public is the golden goose--to be plucked at will until there's nothing left.
The article continues: "YISD Superintendent Michael Zolkoski said, 'I want the people to decide whether we want this money or not. In the old days when I did bonds, we used to say Just give us a couple hundred million and trust us. But today, people want to know where the money is going'." Can you really blame them? How much have government taxing agencies stolen off the public in the past 100 years and before? And government offices, from the White House on down, are so filled today with political liars, who believes anything they tell us anymore?
It's no secret that, in many parts of the country, about 3/4 of the property tax goes to support government schools. I can remember when we lived in Illinois the first time, years ago now, I saw someone's property tax bill. Back then it was for about $675 if I recall. That would be a pittance now, and the part of that which went to finance the government schools there was well over $450--just about 2/3 of the total amount.
Government school systems are forever wanting to float more and more bond issues so they can do all manner of things in schools that are supposed to provide that ever-elusive "quality education" that they never quite have enough money to provide--if only they could just get one more bond issue passed, and then one more if that doesn't do it, and on and on. Yet the more money they get, the dumber the kids seem to get. It's a game, folks, and we are the suckers being fleeced!
And talk about scare tactics! Many public school districts are not at all above using these to extort more money from hard-pressed parents. I remember when we lived in Indiana several years back now, one of the local government school districts wanted to float a bond issue. They got lots of good press from a compliant media trying to brainwash the locals about how great this bond issue would be for everyone. It would cure all the ills of man and beast in the area for the next century. When it came time to vote, the public turned it down resoundingly. After a smashing defeat, one of the school officials there stated: "Well, I guess we'll just have to give the public another opportunity to vote for this." So much for the will of the people! That only counts when the results are what the politicians and teachers' unions want. Within a few short months, they did give the public another golden "opportunity" to vote for this monstrosity, and guess what--the public turned it down a second time.
About that time, many kids started bringing stories home from school to the effect that most of their favorite teachers were going to be fired if their parents didn't vote for another bond issue. This propaganda barrage went on for weeks, again, dutifully aided and abetted by the local media, which unhesitatingly printed all manner of scare stories about how, without this bond issue, the local school system would be absolutely decimated. Somehow, the school system had managed to carry on rather well up to this point, but suddenly, without the extra millions, why the school house doors would be closed tomorrow, or the day after. After enough softening up by the media blitz and the scare stories brought home by the kids, the issue was voted on for a third time and this time it passed--barely, but it did pass. And educational blight was prevented--and pigs fly too, so they tell me!
This scare tactic is used all over the country. Here in Louisiana a few years ago, the public school officials in one parish simply could not keep their books straight. Their accounting system was about an inch short of an abomination. When the finally achieved some semblance of having the books straightened out, they found they were unable to account for about a million dollars. How to fix this slight "discrepancy?" One of the school officials said, rather blithely, "I guess we'll have to have a property tax increase." The school system couldn't keep track of their finances, lost over a million dollars somewhere they couldn't account for, and their solution to the problem was to go back and soak the public with higher property taxes to atone for their gross mismanagement. They had already requested one tax increase that year, which was voted down resoundlingly. But they decided to go back and try again. So they did, and it was voted down the second time, rather conclusively. People were just plain tired of seeing their money squandered by a profligate school system and the school district had to learn that year to get along with what it had. Of course the usual charges of "racism" were thrown out there at the public, even though the black population of the school district was only about 10%. Guess what? The school system did get along with what it had to work with that year. They ended the school year not in great shape, but they managed to live within their budget that year, which showed that they really could get along without more of our tax money when they had to.
Unfortunately, most folks across the country have not yet learned what the government school system is really all about (brainwashing 101) and so they vote again and again to authorize these new bond issues that take more and more money out of their pockets. So, some folks are beginning, in these lean economic time, to want to know just what their money is being spent on, and some are even learning to say "NO" to these bond issues. They are going to have to learn to keep saying NO, over and over again, because once you defeat a school bond issue, you can rest assured its proponents will return to try again, and again, and again...
Learn to vote NO on all government school bond issues--and to keep voting NO each time they rear their ugly heads. We are paying for the destruction of our children and our culture with them and we must learn to refuse to do that any longer.
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