Theron Aiken

Sample Argumentative Essay

Milking the Cash Cow

            The public schools of this country are the backbone of society as well as its hope for the future, and the more advanced we become as a society the more advanced and expensive that education becomes. Of course, we never want to slight education or skimp on providing the youth of this country the very best education possible. However, we must make certain that the funding of education is both fair and equitable. Even though the schools receive both federal and state subsidies, the bulk of their funding comes from real estate taxes, begging the question of whether an across the board tax levy on homeowners is actually fair and equitable. It is not equitable, and we must make significant adjustments in real estate taxes, for the purpose of funding public education, so that the burden of taxation falls more equitably on those who most benefit by the schools.

            Gone are the days when a man’s home is his castle. Now that home is a cash cow for the municipality, the county, and most conspicuously, the schools. Of course, it is an easy target for taxation—once it is deeded, registered and assessed, it’s on the butcher’s block for chopping up among all of those eager for funding. Understandably, we must pay for services provided by municipalities, the county and the schools, but why must the total burden fall on the homeowner? While millage rates are relatively low for municipalities and the county, the schools receive the lion’s share of the total millage package.

            Schools receive their funding from a millage rate that is established by the school directors—nine individuals (actually just five, since only a majority is needed) who see over the governance of the school district. Here in Allegheny County school millage rates range from about 14 to 23 mills. One mil equals one dollar per thousand dollars of assessed value of the property, so a millage rate of 14 for a $150,000 house would be an annual tax of $2100. Conversely, a rate of 23 mills on the same assessed value would result in an annual tax of $3,450. Therein lies the first inequity in funding education through property values. The larger the tax base of a community is, the lower the millage can be kept. This results in owners of homes of similar value paying thousands of dollars difference in taxes, depending on what community they live in and where the school directors have set the millage rate.

            Another important inequity in funding the schools lies in the fact that everyone pays the same rate regardless of whether they have five children in the schools, or two, or none. The home owner who pays $3,450 in school taxes and has five children pays $690 per child for their education while the parent in a similar home with two children pays $1725 per child. In addition, many who have no children at all live in the community, but they, of course, pay the same $3450. Education is important to all of us, and everyone should pay something to fund education because it betters the larger society in which we all live. However, some get more benefit from this service than others, yet they pay the same amount for the service as those without children.

            One particulary important group to whom this taxation is inequitable is senior citizens. Seniors who may have been in their homes for thirty or more years are still paying that $3450 even though their children are grown and gone. Now on a reduced income, with all other costs continually rising, they still must pay those school taxes. There are few financial breaks for seniors, but if there is one area in which they have earned that break, it is in school taxes. They have supported the schools all of the years before their children were of school age, all of the years while the children were in school and even during the years that they had to pay for the children’s college educations.

            Of course, real estate is an easy taxation target, and the rationale that home owners are most likely to have children and will get the most use out of the schools is understandable. However, the glaring inequities are becoming more and more expensive. Teacher salaries, which represent about 75% of a school district’s budget, are soaring and approaching $100,000 for career teachers, and all of the other costs of running the schools are rising as well, but to continually raise the millage across the board to foot this bill is unfair and unjust. While teachers salaries may continue to rise, many homeowners have become victims of downsizing, layoffs and even unemployment, yet still have to pay the salaries of teachers whose jobs are secure.

            Ideally, we must find another source, other than real estate, for funding the schools. That failing, if real estate must be the source of school funding, we must make parents bear the load based on the number of children they have; we must provide those without children and those whose children are grown with a significant reduction in school property taxes; and most importantly, we must drastically reduce seniors’ obligation to fund the schools. While this may become more expensive for some, it will provide drastically needed tax relief for those who need it most. Perhaps those most benefiting from the schools will come to realize that school spending is out of control if they have to bear the brunt of the tax burden, and perhaps they can bring schools to task to prioritize their spending.

            One thing that will always be certain is that we will have to pay taxes, and it is only natural that if we use various services that we should pay for those services. But taxation does not have to be inequitable just for the convenience of the taxing body. This is true on all levels of government. For example, right now there is a potential bill in congress to replace federal income tax with a national sales tax—a much more equitable means of taxation. The state of Pennsylvania is looking to gambling as a source of income rather than increasing taxes. But the schools remain the same, continuing to go to the barn to milk their cash cow.