quote:

Originally posted by Timdogg6:
There is a little more to it. She's done a fair bit of harassing them too but sincerely they started all this shit and she didn't give up, kudos to her.

PS Florida homeschool families can get up to $7500 PER KID this year from the state to off set education costs.

That is amazing.

Here in PA I have to pay all my full taxes to the useless, woke public school district and get ZERO toward homeschool expenses. And then my wife has to fill out all sorts of logs and paperwork each year for the state to prove that she taught the kids a curriculum. I would not be surprised to find out one day that the public school industrial complex here will have convinced our politicians to make homeschooling illegal.

quote:

Originally posted by Black92LX:
All of these consolidated/county school districts have made this very very difficult. The districts are way too big.

I grew up and our district as a whole might have been 1,500 kids. All levies and tax increases were put on the ballot.

Not a chance in the world my kids would go to public school these days.

The old neighborhood school is a thing of the past.

Way too big, and way to expensive.

I went to a parochial grade school in the 70's-80's. Sure, my parents had to pay for both through tuition and property taxes.

I did the same for my kids. It's worth it.

quote:

Originally posted by a1abdj:
You can take your tax dollar funded schools back, but it starts by showing up at the board meetings and then showing up at the election.

Sadly, very few people do either. I'm seeing roughly 1 parent per 1,000 students at local board meetings, and municipal elections with 10-15% voter turnout.

With little to no opposition, it's no wonder these types do whatever they feel like doing.

It doesn't help voter turnout to remove those over age 62 from future tax increases. What incentive do they have to vote if they are excused from the consequences of tax increases?

The only hope we have in Missouri is to move the school board elections to November when you get a greater turnout. Currently, even good candidates (which we did have in Mehlville, and Lindbergh School districts) can't get elected because the teachers unions can fund and drive enough turnout in April election to completely control our school boards.

quote:

As satisfying as public hangings would be - and possibly necessary for the outright traitors in State and the mil/indust complex - just ending it would be much easier, politically.

DC has no obligation to fund education, and the states which do, could do so by just providing each child with an account.

ANYTHING is better than the current system.

^^^ Agreed. Even if the current scum is purged, the system that allows for this kind of abuse remains. People over time will forget the consequences and shit like this will happen again at some point.

That said, it's well past overdue for the return of the guillotine. Make it 21st century style: high-intensity laser beheading. Very clean and even humane (to a point); slice and cauterize all at the same time. If no one wants to be the one to push the 'activate' button, let AI do it. After all, it already seems like a lot of these AI systems have concluded that humans are worthless vermin anyways. Allow them this chore of prosecutor, judge, jury and executioner of bureaucrat bunglers; maybe it'll be enough to satisfy and in turn keep them from accessing the launch codes and firing off the nukes, Skynet style. Two birds, one stone...just a thought.

Seeing government give back money to taxpayers; I think that it'll never happen, at least in any amount above token.

quote:

Originally posted by a1abdj:
With little to no opposition, it's no wonder these types do whatever they feel like doing.

Exactly.

The county near me managed to put through a plan to "remodel" a high school... at a cost of $100 million. (Insert Dr. Evil meme here.)

A hundred stinking million dollars. People got peeved at me when I asked if that tremendous expense would help guarantee us smarter kids, and tried to justify it on the basis of the existing building's exterior appearance. ("It looks like a prison.")

How to add fuel to that fire: Ask how far a hundred million would go toward paying teachers better and providing school resource officers.

So what are the suing her for? What is the basis of their lawsuit?

This crap is why my kids have never gone to public school. My children's future is too important to risk permanent damage at the hands of the politically biased and corrupt teachers unions and school boards.

We did private school for a while, but frankly weren't particularly impressed with that either. Many of the teachers were young and inexperienced, and lacked any type of control over the classroom environment. Kids were being disruptive, throwing things, making threats, etc, and the school wasn't handling it.

The self-driven ones were doing mostly ok, but my daughter in particular wasn't able to focus or learn in a classroom like that. She really drew the short-straw when it came to class assignments, and had a series of 20-something-year-old teachers who just had no idea how to manage a classroom, and her learning was clearly suffering. She was barely reading by third grade.

Then the school started importing structures and curriculums from the public school system, and didn't re-sign the contracts of a number of the older, more experienced teachers at the end of the year. We liked those teachers, and our kids had done well in their classes, so we asked the school why they had basically fired them. The school told us that they couldn't comment in personnel matters and we needed to just trust their decision. We did more asking around and found out through other channels that a couple of them were told they weren't being re-signed because "their teaching style wasn't consistent with the administration's vision for the future of the school."

That made it clear to me that the future of the school was going to suck, so we pulled our kids and started homeschooling. They have all thrived in this environment. They all do better at maintaining focus without the disruptions in the classroom, and we've been able to tailor their curriculum to them better than would ever be possible in a class of 20+. My daughter's academics have drastically improved, and she reads pretty much non-stop...her favorite thing to do is go to the book store. My wife has gotten them involved in a co-op that meets every other week, and they get some classes and structure there that are harder to provide at home. Our oldest will be a junior next year, and we're looking at enrolling him in some local college courses for dual-credit. He's also been working one day a week, which he loves, and we're looking at doing the same for my daughter next year.

My kids are pretty much the most significant things that I'm ever going to produce, and I'll be damned if I'm going to let the public school system brainwash and ruin them. Same goes for paying a private school to do the same. It means being a one-income family, but it's absolutely worth it.

quote:

Originally posted by a1abdj:
You can take your tax dollar funded schools back, but it starts by showing up at the board meetings and then showing up at the election.

Sadly, very few people do either. I'm seeing roughly 1 parent per 1,000 students at local board meetings, and municipal elections with 10-15% voter turnout.

With little to no opposition, it's no wonder these types do whatever they feel like doing.

Our town learned this a few years ago when there were rumblings that the school district wanted to insert CRT curriculum into the classroom. The outrage spread like wildfire, a parent PAC was formed and a slate of conservative candidates was created, one of them an attorney who clerked for Justices Thomas and Alito, plus a former county Republican chair. These candidates won by a huge landslide, 70% to 30%, with 3-4 times the turnout for a typical school board election. We were the focus of national local and media as the anti-diversity town. And in subsequent elections, more of the leftist board members were removed, we now have almost have an all conservative school board.

The town citizens now realize school board elections are equally as important as presidential elections.

quote:

Originally posted by vthoky:
[The county near me managed to put through a plan to "remodel" a high school... at a cost of $100 million. (Insert Dr. Evil meme here.)

A hundred stinking million dollars. People got peeved at me when I asked if that tremendous expense would help guarantee us smarter kids, and tried to justify it on the basis of the existing building's exterior appearance. ("It looks like a prison.")

How to add fuel to that fire: Ask how far a hundred million would go toward paying teachers better and providing school resource officers.

You could throw up a couple of wall tents out in a pasture, pay some quality teachers a small fortune, and turn out much better students.

There’s plenty of money to pay good teachers very well. What’s eating up money at every level of education in this country are administrators and specialists. School districts are bloated with them. Universities even worse.

Why are not the people fed up with this, creating recall movements with fierceness?

Either folks are outnumbered or they are not realizing the power to disassemble and re-assemble school boards to better reflect the best oversight of their school systems.

I hear many bitch and express anger, but what are people (other than a handful) actually doing?

I have no idea of how all of that works.
If I did an could, I would throw in first.

And would gladly get onboard where I could be useful and effective, as I cannot see myself starting at this late stage to become properly acquainted with all required to be effective in "beginning" a war.

My children were homeschooled from 91 and done over 20 years ago, so School Board "knowledge" only was applied as to the compliance with Home School protocol.

But I hear people, but listening does not help, if that is all that occurs.

Sue.....sue...sue...not their money or liability so no pain or accountability.
I prefer actions as noted in "The Art of Getting Even" and similar publications. Invoke discomfort and pain and injury (financial and physical) as far as necessary. Be smart....don't get caught....and the message will get across as people get crippled and/or disappear.

quote:

Originally posted by Gustofer:
You could throw up a couple of wall tents out in a pasture, pay some quality teachers a small fortune, and turn out much better students.

Exactly.

quote:

Originally posted by chellim1:
It doesn't help voter turnout to remove those over age 62 from future tax increases. What incentive do they have to vote if they are excused from the consequences of tax increases?

So I guess the answer is to continue taxing their property ad infinitum? If they can't afford the tax bill on a fixed income, oh well. Sorry, coming from a state where assessed property values are making property taxes very difficult to come up with. I'm paying about $275 / mo in northern Utah and it's still climbing. If I were on fixed income and had little savings my house would go bye bye. It happens on a fairly regular basis.

Sorry to vent on you chellim1, but we own property in KC MO too and that is one of that many things we really like about that state.

quote:

So I guess the answer is to continue taxing their property ad infinitum?

No. The answer is to fight these tax increases. As I said above, it's not happening when municipal elections are held in April with a 10-15% voter turnout.

I never even sent my kids to public schools, but I am stuck paying all of the property taxes. I vote against every one of them, but they find ways to increase taxes at every turn.

Why is it that only people over age 62 deserve relief? Don't struggling young families who don't even want the public schools deserve relief too? If the municipal elections were moved to November at least the participation rate would be higher.


ST. LOUIS COUNTY COUNCIL BILL 114
Testimony Before the St. Louis County Council Committee of the Whole
By David Stokes

https://showmeinstitute.org/wp...-Citizens-Stokes.pdf

quote:

Originally posted by Bytes:

So I guess the answer is to continue taxing their property ad infinitum? If they can't afford the tax bill on a fixed income, oh well. Sorry, coming from a state where assessed property values are making property taxes very difficult to come up with. I'm paying about $275 / mo in northern Utah and it's still climbing. If I were on fixed income and had little savings my house would go bye bye. It happens on a fairly regular basis.

We sold our Park City home recently, with a significant factor being an expected doubling in property taxes due solely to increased values. Not a rate increase. Just because real estate values have gone up dramatically.

We had neighbors on our street that saw their property tax triple!

We are retired on no income. No pensions. Just savings.

It makes no sense to increase taxes based on increased market values for long term owners. But I suspect the local governments actually prefer to turn over the inventory to keep the prices moving up so that taxes keep moving up.

quote:

It makes no sense to increase taxes based on increased market values for long term owners.

It makes perfect sense when you're the government. Doesn't matter how much they get, it's never enough. You always hear them asking for more, but never hear them speak of getting by with less. They could tax us at 100% and would still want another 5% increase in a year or two.

quote:

Originally posted by Timdogg6:

...Florida homeschool families can get up to $7500 PER KID this year from the state to off set education costs.

Iowa has a one-year-old program that offers around $7600 per child at private schools. AFAIK, it does not apply to home schooling.

The only tax relief we get is for our assessment to be frozen .

quote:

Originally posted by Sigmund:
Iowa has a one-year-old program that offers around $7600 per child at private schools. AFAIK, it does not apply to home schooling.

We have something like that in Indiana, too, but you have to be careful accepting that money. It typically comes with strings attached as to what curriculum you can use, mandatory compliance with state standardized testing, state reporting, etc. Make sure you read the fine print. It's available to homeschoolers in our state, but we opted not to apply for it once we learned the terms.

Some states have anti-SLAPP* lawsuit laws, but I agree that public hanging might be a better solution.

SLAPP - Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation.

It really is unfortunate that things seem to be going in a direction where it seems like a violent response might be needed, or might be the best solution. I strongly suspect that none of us (or darned few anyway) want to see that violence. It just starts to look like all other avenues are being foreclosed or rendered ineffective. Sigh…