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Once again the taxpayers of Douglas County are
told by the Board of Education that more money is desperately needed for county
schools. The proposed $150 million
property bond would last 20 years. It would be in addition to the five current
school bonds, the $120 million school SPLOST, property tax, income tax, federal
and state funds, grants, fees, charges, donations and wherever else money may
come from for the schools. Apparently the hundreds of millions of dollars in
revenue already collected from taxpayers are not enough. They want more.
We are encouraged to blindly accept the authority
of the Board of Education. We are
assured of the infallibility of its actions and decisions. We are asked to believe that every single
penny spent by the Board is honestly and wisely used for the good of the children. The Board wishes us to trust them and to give
them dominion to shape the young minds and lives of our children. Even assuming
the highly unlikely scenario of a perfectly functioning public school system
bereft of the pitfalls of waste, bad management, bad judgment and over-inflated
egos, when all is said and done, we cannot afford the cost of public schools.
The Federal government is broke. State, county and city governments are
broke. The Douglas County School System
itself is broke. Without consulting us, the Board of Education has called for a
$150 million property bond, a tax that would last 20 years. Government schools,
like all government agencies, survive only by imposed monopolies and massive
infusions of public debt for which we are liable. Now we are asked by the Board of Education to
increase that debt.
If approved by voters March 20, the $150 million,
20 years long property bond will be only one more temporary fix that cannot
solve a deeper problem. Even with the
best of intentions, it will not help the schools for long. As always, there would soon be a new
emergency requiring a fresh influx of new cash.
A call would then go out by the Board for another bond and SPLOST in a
never-ending cycle of insufficent funds and mounting debt.
Because of this proliferating mountain of debt for
us and future generations, we may be witnessing the last death gasp of
government education as we know it.
Indeed, our very civilization may now be winding down because there is
just not enough money to keep it running any longer.
Rather than debating the
pros and cons of yet another tax, the real challenge facing us may be finding
the courage necessary to finally acknowledge and clearly see the ending of an
era of unrestrained government power, unlimited government spending and
unfulfillable government promises.
Tony Cain
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It's just a penny!
2007 Douglas County School Bond Election Results (Unofficial)