Oh, hey! I'm on a roll.
Feb. 23rd, 2007 02:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stoney321I sent in another letter to the editor about school vouchers, and they're printing it tomorrow. \o/ Snark phasers set to HIGH.
Original Letter From An Idiot
Re: "Vouchers are just welfare" by Beverly Rigsy and "PBS vital to democracy" Letters Feb. 14
It never ceases to amaze me that some people think that my taxes should be used to pay for PBS and public schools. But, should I want some of my taxes to pay for private schools or non-liberal TV, it is considered welfare and I am not entitled to it.
Vouchers are a way for me to get some of my tax funds back. I have paid for public schools to propagandize one of my kids and now am trying to limit it on the other.And if PBS is so necessary, it needs to stand on its own or be paid for by the people who want it.
~ [Name of jerkwad, My City]
My response:
[Name of Jerkwad], who despises the "liberal" PBS channel and its programming-- wait. What's liberal about PBS? Is it Masterpiece Theater? NOVA and that hog-wash Nature? Nope, must be Sesame Street, ooooh that's liberal stuff right there! With its letters and feelings and songs! They just let all those puppets PLAY together! And they're not the same color, and you know what I'm talking about there. (Personally, I'm a little iffy on that whole Bert and Ernie living situation.)
This response brought to you by the letters W, T and H.
~signed, my real name
"If PBS is so necessary, it needs to stand on its own, or be paid for by the people who want it." HEY! IT DOES! A small portion of government funding isn't making or breaking it, bub. They provide 15% of the CPB's funding. (Which translates to a larger portion for small towns. You know, where people who don't have a lot of money tend to be, and probably NEED free educational TV.)
Also, Arthur is a show about brown people. And Reading Rainbow? Mmm hmmm. It's all subterfuge for Gay Pride. That's how they getcha! EYE. ROLL.
PEOPLE. It is in YOUR BENEFIT to have an educated populace. As one wise woman said about her son to another woman (and I'll never forget) "I can train him up now, or he can be robbing you in five years."
Original Letter From An Idiot
Re: "Vouchers are just welfare" by Beverly Rigsy and "PBS vital to democracy" Letters Feb. 14
It never ceases to amaze me that some people think that my taxes should be used to pay for PBS and public schools. But, should I want some of my taxes to pay for private schools or non-liberal TV, it is considered welfare and I am not entitled to it.
Vouchers are a way for me to get some of my tax funds back. I have paid for public schools to propagandize one of my kids and now am trying to limit it on the other.And if PBS is so necessary, it needs to stand on its own or be paid for by the people who want it.
~ [Name of jerkwad, My City]
My response:
[Name of Jerkwad], who despises the "liberal" PBS channel and its programming-- wait. What's liberal about PBS? Is it Masterpiece Theater? NOVA and that hog-wash Nature? Nope, must be Sesame Street, ooooh that's liberal stuff right there! With its letters and feelings and songs! They just let all those puppets PLAY together! And they're not the same color, and you know what I'm talking about there. (Personally, I'm a little iffy on that whole Bert and Ernie living situation.)
This response brought to you by the letters W, T and H.
~signed, my real name
"If PBS is so necessary, it needs to stand on its own, or be paid for by the people who want it." HEY! IT DOES! A small portion of government funding isn't making or breaking it, bub. They provide 15% of the CPB's funding. (Which translates to a larger portion for small towns. You know, where people who don't have a lot of money tend to be, and probably NEED free educational TV.)
Also, Arthur is a show about brown people. And Reading Rainbow? Mmm hmmm. It's all subterfuge for Gay Pride. That's how they getcha! EYE. ROLL.
PEOPLE. It is in YOUR BENEFIT to have an educated populace. As one wise woman said about her son to another woman (and I'll never forget) "I can train him up now, or he can be robbing you in five years."
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2007-02-26 02:41 pm (UTC)PEOPLE. It is in YOUR BENEFIT to have an educated populace.
You really bring tears to my eyes with this. Laura, right now our town is in real trouble with a financial crisis, the same one that many many towns are facing all over the country, I'm sure, but our town is in a deeper pile of it because of a couple of factors. One, we get less money from the state than most towns of similar socioeconomic types due to a bizarre and outmoded way of calculating the fraction of state aid. And two, only 17% of the households in this town have children going to school. That last statistic is a killer, because it means whenever it comes to a vote in the town on raising taxes for school? It gets voted down. There is a high fraction of seniors in the town living on fixed incomes, and I do understand that they have a tough time -- HOWEVER -- there is a part of the tax code called a "circuit breaker" that kicks in for seniors and relieves them whenever their property taxes get too high. Things are getting really bitter and divisive here between the parents and the senior citizens because we parents are fighting so hard to get crucially necessary money for the schools from both the state and from raising taxes, and we aren't getting anywhere on either front. There's now talk of a lawsuit against the state, if we can get some of the other towns who are embattled against this unfair state aid calculation to join us.
Sorry to dump on you with this overly long comment, but your very, very apt letter just hit home with me, because it is so very TRUE.
no subject
Date: 2007-02-26 03:06 pm (UTC)I wonder if getting a national light shone on the issue could benefit y'all? How frustrating. Why people don't understand that their "tax dollars" being "wasted on schools" (when they don't have kids, etc.) amounts to not much more than a ha'penny a year... Shut up, folks. You want beggars and thieves running your town? Or do you want people who are educated and can care for you and your needs? Bah. And hugs to you.