From my experience growing up where property taxes paid for schools,
each town had its own school district, and unincorporated areas could
have multiple districts in addition to county schools, giving schools
the power to tax also gives them the power to issue their own bonds and
set their own election dates.
Three results:
- Without fear of reasignment, parents could and did choose homes
based on school quality. Compare Chapel Hill-Carrboro schools with the
rest of Orange County for a local example. -
Parents of students would account for the largest part of the
turnout, and there was little coordinated opposition to higher school
spending. - School boards negotiated directly with teachers and teachers went
on strike for up to a month every time there was a new contract.
(Unlike the NHL, we never lost a full school year.)
North Carolina’s current system in which the state pays for most of
the personnel expenses and couties pay for buildings leaves nobody with
accountability for schools. The governor decides there should be no
more than 18 students in classrooms up to 3rd grade and schools must
now revise their capital plans. The General Assembly says that school
boards have great flexibility to allocate funds. County commissioners
say they can’t control their school boards. And school boards complain
nobody gives them enough money.
The end result is either a vote for vouchers
given directly to families, to maintain state financing but increase
parental control, or full privatization. Private schools and
homeschooling families could, like Hillsdale College, refuse to accept
vouchers and be no worse off than at present, but they would provide an
opportunity for even low-income parents to demand accountability from
schools. Maybe the current agitation by school boards will lead to a
broader discussion of school funding.
