Tax The Rich?

 Haven't had much time or energy for writing this week, but I was having some thoughts about taxes and such that seem to go against the grain of many people that I know. A lot of people think that raising taxes for the “rich” will solve so many of life's troubles that it needs to be done immediately, if not retroactively. Even a few of the more affluent out there are making a noise about being willing to pay higher taxes and I think that's great. But why are they waiting?

You see, the idea is that we should force people to pay more in taxes so that the government will have more cash to help those who are less fortunate. The money could then be used to create more jobs, feed the hungry and build more houses. Sounds awesome, doesn't it? But what's the point?

If someone truly wants to help the less fortunate of the world there is no reason for them to wait until the government makes that assistance mandatory. They can simply write a check and take it to the nearest food pantry or shelter so that the funds are used immediately and locally. That way, the donor gets the benefit of seeing and knowing exactly who is being helped by their generosity. No bureaucracy to wait for, no committees to wade through, and no question of where the funds are going. The money goes from the hand of who has it to the hand of who needs it. Simple as that.

If, on the other hand, we take the money from those who have it in the form of a tax, the compulsory nature of the tax makes the giving less meaningful. In fact, it's not giving anymore...it's a tax; and those are two totally different things. A tax means that the government has a better idea how to use your money than you do, and that is completely untrue in most cases. Giving means that you see a need and are willing to meet that need with whatever you have available to you. Giving is willing, taxing is forced. Isn't it interesting that a person would say that they are willing to be forced to do the right thing while being unable to make themselves just do it? I think that our country would have a stronger sense of unity if we would all just do the right thing in the area of philanthropy instead of waiting for someone in Washington to make us do it. A helping hand from a neighbor is usually perceived as less threatening than a government hand-out, and it is easier to monitor for abuse. If I loan my friend some money to make his mortgage payment and he spends it on beer; guess what happens? No more loans! Accountability is better with local philanthropy and the money is used more efficiently. So, why would we rely on taxes? Really, does anybody want to pay more taxes? I don't think so.

Maybe I'm just a pessimist, but I don't think the celebrities who wave the “I'll pay more taxes” banner are very sincere. If they want to do something good with their money they will. If not, then higher taxes will just give them something to complain about while the money gets lost in the system.

So, what do we do? Lower taxes for everyone so that each of us can determine how to use our own resources. Stop turning our heads as we pass the homeless on the streets. Start visiting the shelters. Listen to others and live as a community so that needs are met as they come up. Stop waiting for “Big Brother” to tell us where to help and just do it. The we will be choosing to do what's right instead of waiting to be forced to.

Open Letter To Climax Springs

 To Whom It May Concern,

My name is Brett Davis and I am running for a place on the Climax Springs School Board. I am writing this letter so that anyone who is interested may know why I am running and what I hope to accomplish.

I grew up in a suburb of Dallas, TX and attended school in an extremely large school district. There were many benefits to growing up in large schools with a lot of resources. The kids who chose to take part in sports or music programs received top-notch training. We usually had the best equipment for the task at hand as well as opportunities to be active in a wide variety of extra-curricular activities.

We also had a very wide spread drug and alcohol problem in our schools. There were fights before and after school, and we had the occasional teen-aged pregnancy. I suppose that some of these things could be overlooked if all of the kids in the district were learning appropriately, but the truth is that our drop out and failure rate was no different than any other district. The sad truth is that some students will take advantage of the opportunity to learn while others simply won't. The school's job is to engage the students so that they get as much benefit as possible from their time in school.

For the past three years I have had the pleasure of watching my kids attend school in our new home of Climax Springs. I will have to admit that I was concerned at first because my wife and I had heard of “problems” within the school; however, my experience has been that whatever problems exist here, they are no different than what kids and families face all over the nation. Big schools, small schools, they all have drugs, alcohol, violence, teen pregnancy, and overall apathy to deal with. Also, they all have students who don't want to learn. Once again, it's the school's job to engage them so that they will want to.

There are some people in the area who feel that closing the Climax Springs School District would be the best thing to do. They cite all of the perceived problems with the school as well as low performance on standardized tests as reasons to do this. The idea is that moving our students to a larger school would allow them to get a better education simply because the school is bigger and potentially more efficient. This idea is false and I can't let people who think this way destroy a school that is no worse than most other schools and has the potential to be so much more.

I mentioned the good things about attending a large school earlier, but small schools have several features that are not available to kids in big schools. With fewer students in each class, the kids in Climax Springs get more one-on-one attention than they would get in a larger school. This extra focus on the kids lets the teachers identify problem areas that may get overlooked when they are forced to deal with more kids.

We have fewer after-school activities for the kids, but anyone who wants to be involved can. In bigger schools, athletics, music and art are sometimes an option only for the top performers. This means that a child who wants to play football may not be allowed to because they are not as good as another child. Someone who wants to play trumpet may never get the chance because the band doesn't need another trumpet player. In our school, if a kid wants to be involved he can be. This allows all of our students to try things that may not be available to them in another school.

There is also a sense of community within our school that I never experienced growing up. I know this can't be measured like a test score, but it is real, nonetheless. I would hate to see our children sent to a larger school, miles away, so that they can be swallowed up in a system that doesn't recognize who they are.

So, what are our options? The way I see it, we only have one. Make our school better than it is. Then, make it better than the other schools out there.

This can be done by refocusing on the basics: reading, writing and math. If a child has a firm foundation in these areas they can go on to learn almost anything. If we fail to teach them these basics, then no amount of gizmos, gimmicks and programs can help. Computers are useless to a student who can not read what is on the screen. Fancy software applications will never teach as well as a teacher.

I don't believe that technology is bad or that outside programs and curriculum are useless; they do have a place. But if they cause us to lose focus on the basics then they serve no purpose.

As a district, we need to be equipping our teachers to give the students a firm grounding in reading, writing and math while educating parents in ways to support and supplement these efforts in the home. As we do this, test scores will go up and grades will improve, not only in the basics but in all subjects. I don't think it will change overnight, but it will change.

Sincerely,

Brett Davis