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The Real Cost of Public Schooling "I Want My Money Back" by Mary Schofield Lots of people want the government to fund homeschooling. Many join charter schools or public ISPs; others advocate vouchers for private education. One popular reason given by parents who want the government to pay for their children's education is that, after all, it's our money. We pay taxes for our children to attend the local public school. Since our children aren't in the public school, it's only fair that our tax dollars follow our children and fund whatever education we choose. Since funding to schools is supposed to be around $4000 per child, I began to wonder what these parents' homes must be like. After all, if they have three shcool-aged children, that's nearly $12,000 of ADA funding. Their taxes must
be substantially higher than mine. Each district varies, so figures for your own children will not be exaqctly what is shown in this articl; however, the dollar amounts are likely near enough for comparison. My figures are based upon the Pioneer Union School Distric in El Dorado County in the 1998-1999 school year. How much would it cost for my child to attend public school? School districts receive state funds based upon average daily attendance. In Pioneer Union, the amount assigned is $4140 per student. But because the schools are "under-funded", the state doesn't have $4140 to give to our local district. The actual amount that the district receives is $3776 per student. Special funding for federally mandated or approved programs is available from the federal government, but the ADA funding comes entirely from the state. Where do ADA funds come from? Once the ADA amount is figured, the state subtracts the portion which is covered by property taxes collected, and then pays the rest from "State Aid." In most districst, about half the ADA is paid by property taxes, and half comes from State Aid. (Marin County is the only county in which property taxes are high enough to completely cover ADA expenses.) So a student attending school in Pioneer Union School District represents an income for the school district of $3776, half of which ($1888) comes from property taxes, and half from State Aid. State Aid is generated primarily from state income tax and sales tax, with a portion from additional sources like corporate taxes.
Where are my property taxes? We got a great deal on our house and we live out in the country where property values are pretty low. So for our example, let's look at a hypothetical house which has been assessed, for tax purposes, at $300,000. Prop 13 rates would mean approximately $3000 per year is paid in property taxes. About 48 percent of the property tax goes to schools, with the rest going into the General Fund. The money heading to schools is further divided between my local elementary school, high school, community college, and County Office of Education. The previous diagram shows the actual break down of figures.
So assuming I pay $3000 per year in property tax, it is reasonable to figure that about $740 of my money is going to my local elementary school towards my own child's ADA funding. What about the remaining $1148 of ADA funds from property tax? Since $1888 of my child's ADA funds come from property tax, and since only $740 is paid by me, the rest comes from other property taxes collected. Looks like I owe a thank-you note to my neighbors -- especially if I have more than one school-age child!
For each additional child in my family, the entire $1888 of property-tax-generated ADA comes from my neighbors, unless they have school-age children of their own. If the neighbors have school-age children, we must assume their taxes are being applied to their own children's ADA funding.
If my children are in high school, I pay even less of their ADA funding.
To generate the additional funds in property-tax-generated ADA which is coming from my neighbors, it will take nearly three taxpayers with homes of similar value to mine ($300,000) for just one child. If I have a big family, I'd better buy a whole box of thank-you notes! How much would my tax bill have to be to cover my own child's ADA? Just under 25 percent of my property tax goes to the elementary school and about 16 percent goes to the local high school. In order for my tax bill to be enough to cover the entire $1888 of my own elementary-age child's ADA, I'd have to pay $7665 per year in property taxes. That means my home must be valued at $766,500. That's a nice house!
Of course, if I have two children of elementary age, my house must be worth twice as much in order to generate enough property taxes to cover ADA for both. Plus, remember that a smaller percent of my property tax bill goes to the local high school, so if I have teens, my house had better be assessed higher. Don't I also contribute to State Aid? Since half of each child's ADA funding comes from State Aid, parents who argue in favor of "getting to use our own tax money" may enjoy seeing what it takes to generate their share of ADA coming from State Aid. Remember that approximately $1888 of one child's ADA comes from State Aid, and that most of these funds are generated by state income tax and sales tax. According to the Department of Finance, nearly 53 percent of the state budget is spent on education. Of all the money targeted toward education, approximately 65 percent goes toward ADA funding. Let's look at the amount of sales tax and state income tax that I would need to pay to fund one child's education. If I paid $2739 in sales tax, 53 percent would go to education, for a total of $1452 of my own sales taxes funding education. Since 65 percent of this would go toward ADA funding, this would provide the needed $944 from sales tax. I would need to spend $34,237 on taxable goods each year to generate enough sales tax. Remember, this is the amount needed to pay the ADA for just one elementary-age child. The final $944 of my child's ADA funding comes from state income tax. California income tax rates vary widely, but assumiong we can afford that $300,000 house, let's figure we are likely in a fairly high tax bracket of 6 percent. Similar to our figures for sales tax, we can see that if my income taxes are $2739 per year, then 55 percent will give us $1452 toward education, $944 of which will fund one child's ADA. With a 6 percent tax rate, this means we would need about $45,650 in taxable income. So am I just getting back my own money if the government funds my child's education? In the final analysis, it's possible for parents who accept government funds for their children's education to be gaining only what they actually paid in taxes. But it's not very likely. For most of us, even paying enough taxes to cover one child's ADA funding is well above our currentl levels of income and spending. Most likely, if we each have just one school-age child receiving government funding of nearly $4000 per year, well under half is coming from our own taxes. The rest is being taken from the taxes others pay.
Reprinted with permission from the April/May, 2000 issue of The Parent Educator members' magazine published by Christian Home Educators Association (CHEA) of California), P.O. Box 2009, Norwalk, CA 90651-2009
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