Class Reaction - April 8th

Thank you Dr. Pope for having the class discussion on school funding. I was always confused on how the funding for schools worked and now can better understand it. It was very interesting to learn the difference between property tax funding and sales tax funding. The main thing that stuck out in my mind was that property taxes do not equally disburse money across the state for school districts. My main concern is how we are going to get funding for the state of South Carolina. Since switching over to sales tax, and the economy in the situation that it is, nobody is buying anything and therefore we have no money for our schools. Do I understand this right? What is the solution to our problems? I know the economy needs to improve but what can we do until that happens? I have to agree with another classmates post that the way Virginia’s method seemed like the best way of going about things. I think the schools funding should come from both property tax and sales tax. How else are we going to get all our schools up and running with favorable conditions. The schools along I-95 need some serious help to improve their conditions. As a state we need to focus on “all” schools and “all” children. Who are we to decide who’s more important than whom? As teachers we need to educate all children equally and fairly no matter if they are rich or poor, or if their parents have some kind of political pull.