Can We Eliminate School Property Tax?

This has got to be one of the most continuous issues facing lawmakers for years. One could agree county and cities property taxes are needed to pay for needed services. Schools on the other hand provide no direct benefits to homeowners. It could further be argued school property taxes are the only repeating taxes for something you purchased. It's especially unfair if a family never had kids or moved here after they became empty nesters. Some families have a half a dozen kids who pay the same as those with none in a comparable home.

One of the issues I have is how schools have gone beyond their mission to provide a basic education. For example providing grief counselors, before-after and during school meals, infant care, security teams, summer programs, teachers tuition reimbursement programs, financial partnerships with community colleges, bloated administration positions and so forth. All of these are noble causes but incur increased costs. Let us start the conversation by looking at ways to decrease some of these expenses.

Several other points could be made but the question still remains as to how would we otherwise pay for education? Here's a few to think about.

*** At one time the federal government wanted to encourage population growth. In today's world it makes me wonder why we still give generous IRS deductions for each kid. What if instead a certain amount were charged for each kid and that amount was sent directly to the school district your kid was in after 6 years of age?

*** How about an impact fee for each child born? Yeah I know having kids is already expensive as hell but our continued population growth impacts us all. This offsets some of those costs to the rest of us.

*** What if after a certain age we eliminated owner occupied property taxes comparable to 'debt paid'? Charge them more in their working years. Less thereafter. In the case of renters landlords would receive reduced property taxes (and be required) to provide reduced rents for units without kids proportionate to what they pay. A little more for the others with kids.

*** How about requiring so called non-profits to pay taxes on their properties? It could be paid at a much lower rate, but why shouldn't they help pay like the rest of us for the same benefits we are told we are receiving?

*** What about those single moms with a bunch of kids struggling too poor to pay? Yeah, what do you think we ought to do with them? Any ideas?

Point is... our education system (including college) is sucking us dry. Could home schooling online be the answer OR some other new way of educating our kids? What say you?