Monday, December 16, 2013

Schools should be donation-funded only- DRO Herald LTE


Schools should be donation-funded only


Thank goodness for people like the Katzes, who gave $250,000 to our local school district. This is the way schools should be funded at the local level – with people who can afford it and get the notoriety that it gives them.

If all the people in 9-R who are still shocked about the failure of Amendment 66 were to give $5,000 or $10,000, then everyone would be happy.

The schools would have plenty of extra money, and the donors would be lauded as local heros in the news while the rest of us would not have to fork over tax monies we can’t afford.
Amendment 66 was doomed to fail from the get-go. The almost $1 billion a year the state would have received for its schools was way out of line and just plain greedy to ask for. How much of that money would have gone to the schools? Probably a small percentage, but there would have been some very wealthy state officials if the amendment had passed.

If locals donate, then the funds will be more transparent and easier to follow what they are being used for.

Let those who can afford it help the schools do so. My wife and I over the last 40 years have given tens of thousands of tax dollars to 9-R without ourselves having children. Shouldn’t we get a tax break?

Thanks to the voters of Colorado for defeating this astronomically high tax.

Jay Turner
Durango