A School District With Low Taxes and No Schools – New York Times

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Here is a case of free riding in spades, from Jeff Topping in the New York Times.

Just to be clear, Patrick Flynn says he loves public education. He just does not like the idea of paying for it.

So when it came time last
November for the expanding, unincorporated desert community of Troon to
choose between joining a nearby school district, and paying higher
property taxes to help finance it, or starting its own, Mr. Flynn led
the movement that created the Christopher Verde School District.

Not that the Christopher Verde district will  have any schools, teachers or, apparently, students.

The children of Troon will continue to attend nearby schools. And thanks to a loophole in  Arizona law, the grown-ups of Troon will continue to avoid paying property
taxes in those districts, which makes officials in the districts less
than mirthful.

“The whole purpose of this was to avoid taxes on their million-dollar homes,” said State Senator Linda Gray, a Republican who has sponsored a bill to prevent the formation of a school district
without schools. (Ms. Gray conceded that there was at least one Flynn
supporter who had “a half-million-dollar home.”)

<story continues at the link below>

Link: A School District With Low Taxes and No Schools – New York Times.

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One Comment

  1. jackspratling
    February 16, 2007 at 1:02 pm

    There are two sides to the education story.
    (1) Rising housing prices and the subsquent money grab by municipal governments have exiled many seniors on fixed incomes from their homes.
    (2) The way schools are funded, it’s naive to think that property taxes in affluent communities are anything BUT private-school tuition.
    Is this a breach of the social contract? Maybe. However, there should be places where people can live where they can be assured that they won’t be displaced by excessive property taxes.

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