School shootings from the 1700's to present day in the US

[St. Olaf]

Federal tax money that should have come back to the states and started the money famine for state and local governments that caused a multitude of problems with education funding, mental health funding, infrastructure and a plethora of other needs.

why should federal tax money go to state programs in the first place? Why not decrease the federal tax and increase state taxes that address each states individual needs. Again. Not in the constitution, not a federal mandate.

Well, that's about what happened.

Since the states weren't getting their money back as they had before, state taxes increased a bit, but mostly the burden has been shifted to local governments as states had to cut money that traditionally had come back to local governments.....thus property taxes had to go up a lot and local services like libraries, parks, street repair, fire and police had to be cut.

It was "Trickle Down" robbery.

[DoxaPar]

It was "Trickle Down" robbery.

Well, it isn't really "robbery" if it didn't belong to them in the first place.

You can't "rob" someone of something they never owned in the first place.

Edit: I'm not commenting on the right or wrong of the situation. I'm commenting on your use of language. So.. not interested in debating the merits of the argument here.

[St. Olaf]

It's robbery every time the money goes to the rich bastards instead of the needs of the people.

The money was taken from the people of those states and instead of the usual portion going back to the states......that portion was stolen and went to tax cuts for the rich bastards.

So, our property taxes went up and the rich got richer.

That's what Reagan did.

Joke is on the dupes who voted for him.

[tman]

It's robbery every time the money goes to the rich bastards instead of the needs of the people.

This is where you lose everyone.

MY money is MINE. It does NOT belong to the state. I get to CHOOSE where my excess funds are spent. It is NOT up to you to decide what I should do with MY money.

You are free to give your money to whichever state organization you see fit.

The people who have "needs" have the constitutional right to fill those needs by using their life and liberty, and pursuing happiness. The Constitution does NOT say that their happiness must come at my expense.


Socialism collapse on itself sooner, rather than later.

[ktech]

It's robbery every time the money goes to the rich bastards instead of the needs of the people.

The money was taken from the people of those states and instead of the usual portion going back to the states......that portion was stolen and went to tax cuts for the rich bastards.

So, our property taxes went up and the rich got richer.[/snip]

I'd just like to weigh in here briefly.

I'd propose instead of the federal government taking money in the first place, they should have just left it there... but I don't follow how that money was "stolen and went to tax cuts".

Also, I disagree with your definition of robbery.
In reality, all taxation is robbery - that is to say, it is money obtained by force (If you don't believe that, try not paying your taxes and wait for the men with guns...).

But I also want to point out a flaw in the common assertion that the "rich" can afford to pay more, so we should tax them more... it's called the Laffer Curve. http://www.laffercenter.com/arthur-laffer/the-laffer-curve/ - we have to be cautious taxing people or we'll actually start making less tax revenue (this is another reason to cut spending instead of increasing taxes... and I'm including nationbuilding, "defense" spending, entitlement programs and damn near everything else the Fed .gov does in the spending that should be cut, just so you're aware that no sacred cows are safe).

Anyway, on to the school issue: increasing funding does not solve school problems, like it or not - I do however agree with the sentiment that we need to, as a culture, work to improve education for everyone.

Based on the available data, I'd suggest school choice and competition would solve the education quality issue. http://www.edchoice.org/research/reports/a-win-win-solution--the-empirical-evidence-on-school-vouchers.aspx Indeed, things like corporate scholarship tax credit programs actually improve outcomes and save state money. http://www.oppaga.state.fl.us/reports/pdf/0868rpt.pdf
Also, the Florida scholarship tax credit has actually been shown to improve outcomes for students in public schools (apparently by stimulating competition) http://educationnext.org/does-competition-improve-public-schools/. The metric used in that study is test scores, which isn't ideal, but nevertheless shows a significant change after the implementation of the program.

So, actual data suggest that school choice yields positive outcomes for students while yielding a net benefit for the state budget - I'd say it's worth trying, because it seems clear that at the very least, the current system isn't working properly (and I think we can all agree on that).