Here’s The Deal
Here, right here, is what I do not understand about Republicans.
Why does every damn thing have to revolve around taxes? Here is an article from my local newspaper that publishes 3 or 4 times a week. This was on the front page and got itself a blue background so everybody could see the hard work of one of the last remaining Republicans in the county is doing in Austin. I’ll let you read it because it ain’t long.
Whoop-de-damn-do.
First of all, why do teachers have to buy school supplies? That’s crazy. We don’t expect government judges to buy their own computers, expect nurses to buy their own syringes, nor do we expect garbage men to buy their own tires for the truck. I know teachers who carry a second job just to be able to afford being a teacher. We seem to find plenty of money when the Governor wants something.
How ‘bout we pay them a wage commensorate with their education? Then if you expected them to buy their own supplies, I wouldn’t get so mad.
Sales tax in Texas is $8.25. So yeah, whoop-de-damn-double-do.
Jetton, you are not helping teachers. You are sending yet another message that things do not need to get better for them. 8.25%? Hell, they are supposed to give their church 10%. I’m talking to you, Jetton, you fund schools or you give teachers a raise but don’t give an 8.25% tax break on spiral notebooks and expect me to tap dance for you.
And by the way, Dude: How is this “putting more money directly into the classroom?” You’re expecting them to spend more of their own money?
I don’t recall my teachers having to shell out for school supplies. Of course, I was in school back when Christ was a Corporal, as my Dear Old Dad used to say.
Why don’t they fund schools enough to have needed supplies on hand?
Oh, I forgot. They’re Rethugs and they don’t think government works; so, they underfund it to make sure it doesn’t.
1p,s,: Texas’ sales tax is that high because there is no State Income Tax. It’s to make sure that all the poor people pay their “fair share” while the wealthy folk get to keep the bulk of their money.
2Most States I’ve lived in define tax free days, (yes days) for parents to buy some clothes,maybe shoes, medicines, back packs, and school supplies.
Welcome to Texas: Sales Tax $8.25 If’n Y’all can’t afford it, turn around now. Teachers: SOL! ~
3That little stunt reeks of trump lobbing a roll of paper towels to hurricane victims, or trump begrudgingly hosting predominately minority groups at the White House, serving them fast food on silver platters. Backhanded insults.
4Regressive taxation will never makes schools competitive anywhere and teachers shouldn’t be required to add “the vows of poverty” to their teaching credentials. We feel your pain, Texas. Nevada schools have been on an oscillating pattern for decades. A Democratic governor is elected, reduces classroom size, etc, etc. Then we relapse with a Republicon governor, rinse, repeat, and sink again.
Local control, states rights, regressive taxation, and Bitsy DeVile; Biden’s Sec Ed Miguel Cardona has a tough job ahead of him.
5Sheeeeeeeesh! Rep. Jetton, you’re on the wrong track here. Instead of giving teachers a break on the taxes they pay on school supplies they BUY WITH THEIR OWN MONEY, how about funding schools well enough that they can spend their own money on their own families, not their students? You’re not helping; you’re just normalizing what is really a serious problem.
6But how will we maintain our status at 43rd in the nation in education if we increase school budgets. Also, the students might grow up literate and able to form opinions and then they might throw the GOPers out?
7Barb@2, they oughta try it like here in N.H. — no income tax AND no sales tax, and woe be unto the candidate who dares so much as breathe a suggestion that we ought to do either IFYADONTLIKEITGOBACKTAMASS, YAMASSHOLE!
so how do we do it? well, our schools suck and our property taxes are insane, but that’s the quiet part we’re not supposed to say out loud…
8All that oil money went to hire famous, past-their-productive-years professors (what my brother the professor calls exhausted volcanoes) at UT, with nothing for the elementary schools.
It’s not hard tp explain how Texas got to be Texas.
9el largarto @7, what happened to your state lottery (allegedly) to fund schools, your sin taxes and state operated booze bonanza? BTW Please can we swap Iduho for Vermont? We’ll throw in Utah, if you want it.
The double pronged problem. While politicians don’t want educated voters, the capitalists no longer want educated workers who might organize, unionize and otherwise refuse to work for poverty wages.
10Remember? The official TX R party platform of 2012 had a plank that opposed the teaching of “critical thinking skills” in schools.
Much general criticism of that plank followed, though it arguably made little difference in the way Rs view public education.
11Republicans HATE education. It costs money, and well-eductated with critical thinking skills don’t vote for them. They want ‘training academies,’ wherein brain-washes children are dumped right out, ready for dangerous and demeaning grunt work.
And don’t tell me it isn’t so. Betsy DeVos worked hard to destroy public education, aided and abetted by her legion of wealthy, right-wing grandees.
Remember, schools should not be factories for stamping out little, obediant adults. They SHOULD be places of education, enlightenment and impowerment for prospective citzens.
12We used to get a tax rebate at the end of the year for up to 250 dollars worth of supplies. Teachers absolutely buy their own stuff every year. Some teachers have found ways to include these items on your supply list every fall. I think it reached a head last year when we spent 70 or 80 of the 120 we spent on stuff other kids would use. This included Kleenex, dry erase markers, and more traditional items like pens, paper, notebooks etc.
Some kids can’t afford that stuff while others choose not to get it because they want to avoid doing work. Every year many classroom teachers buy pens, paper, pencils, and notebooks and they all disappear by the end of the year. This doesn’t even mention stuff like posters or materials for bulletin boards. The 250 never really covered it, but they ended up taking that away.
I’m not going to look a gift horse in the mouth, but we can do better than 8.25 percent. Heck, if we are patient we can buy stuff through the school and get tax exempt status. This is obviously a content rich topic for me, so I’ll contribute more in my own post.
13The “school supplies” requirements I recall were things I would be using (e.g., notebooks, paper, regular & colored pencils) and some “shared” resources (tissues, as there would be one box open at a time). The school had a budget divided among teachers to cover many instructional items. Teachers generally paid for their “unique” interests, like food for fish and snakes in the room, seeds and starter pots for the school garden, specialized origami paper, and the electrical wire and battery used to set up and operate a large (5’x5′) house in one classroom.
Sales tax either was paid or some stores were known to waive collecting the tax from teachers and paid for it out of their money.
A state-wide program hints there is a state-wide problem.
14Lawrence O’Donnell has a charity that has raised millions of dollars to provide desks for schoolchildren in Africa. We need one to provide basic supplies for schools in America. Maybe our politicians can be shamed into doing the right thing. I’m not optimistic.
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