Submitted by Mike O'Brien, Apr 29, 2008 18:03

Skyrocketing property taxes are driving more than 100,000 taxpayers a year out of New York. The state has shifted its constitutional mandate to fund public education onto the shoulders of property owners. It is a most inequitable and egregious form of taxation which places a family's primary asset and in some cases, its sole asset in jeopardy regardless of the home owners ability to pay. Education should be funded by the state because it has access to a broader range of financing options, and the current system enables the state to spend taxpayer dollars on questionable programs that it has no constitution mandate to fund.

The concept of individual school districts defies the common wisdom of seeking efficiencies through synergistic mergers of administrative, management and purchasing functions, and a school year based on the needs of an agrarian society is no longer warranted nor cost justifiable. Also, the current segregation of high school and college curriculum wastes countless billions of educational dollars due to without any measurable benefit to society.

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