school funding issue

Changes in school funding have been made to lower people’s property taxes. These changes are creating hardships for school districts in Indiana and across the nation. Last year, Indiana changed from funding the General Fund (the fund used to pay teachers and run schools) with property taxes to funding it with sales tax, income tax, and lottery revenue. These taxes are more unstable than property taxes and are not creating enough revenue for schools in the current economic downturn. As a result, schools are cutting programs and hiring fewer teachers. Schools are resorting to holding referendums to pass bond issues that will be used to pay for staff. Many of these bond issues hold the risk of not passing and they are not a permanent solution to the lack revenues from unstable taxes. While there is great fallout from not funding schools with property taxes, the conflict of this issue is between the property tax payers and the state. Property tax payers do not want to foot the bill for schools through their property taxes. In Indiana, the state has given in to property tax payers and funded schools through other taxes. Schools will suffer as long as states do not use historically stable property taxes for funding education, instead giving property tax payers relief.
A link to a report which discusses the impact of not using local taxes to fund schools in Indiana is http://ceep.indiana.edu/projects/PDF/PB_V7N2_Summer_2009_EPB.pdf.
An article that discusses the issue and conflict created by using property taxes to fund schools in Texas is http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/MYSA062906_01A_school_property_tax_17029ae_html25827.html.
A link to a blog that discusses the issue of older people not liking to have to pay property taxes to support the younger generation’s schools is http://www.prospect.org/csnc/blogs/tapped_archive?month=07&year=2008&base_name=why_local_property_taxes_shoul.