I wanted to take some time to get my thoughts together, about this.
@corlin
This is very well written. I think there are a couple of other points to consider:
Item 2 means that people must accept that their taxes will go up sharply, because there's no way the bulk of such an increase would come from state or federal funds.
Then you have to acknowledge the logistical impossibility of opening schools with adequate social distancing within existing facilities. Even if you double your staff, you also need double the space.
@voltronic @corlin Seniors will also be hit hard if their property taxes go up. Many on fixed incomes like my mom
Funding schools on local property tax, is completely insane. Always has been.
We can as a nation move away from that. By massively increasing Federal funding, yet retaining control of expenditures locally.
Now is the time to do that.
We can wean ourselves off the property tax tit, and slowly move to a true national educational system, again with local oversight.
Remember
There is not a single "poor" school in Finland.
They have no "bad" teachers.
The central core of the whole Finish school system, is the total well-being of the student.
It is well studied, and works.
The Fins get education !
@corlin @LibertySpeaks @voltronic
We do have a few a-hole teachers (speaking from experience), but they are all extremely well educated, and most consider their job a meaningful one.
Going through school in the recession in the 90s did change a few things, but other than not getting brand new books every year, we used them 2-3 years. And they reduced the budget for arts and craft subjects, so smaller projects for students. Level of education never dropped, though.
@corlin @LibertySpeaks @voltronic they also get HUMANITY
Thanks.
Yep.
Taxes will go up in the short term.
Yet I am a big fan of MMT, (modern monetary theory), which states, that the Fed can spend almost any amount of money, in the short term. A debate for another time.
As for schools, and physical infrastructure, splitting the class room into three rotating cohorts. Can do a lot to mitigate the social problems. Going to school every third day, will increase the chance that kids are supported, and cared for.
@corlin
Item 5 is one that is tremendously important. The first step in getting there is disassociating school taxes from real estate values.
@LibertySpeaks