Payson Roundup

Editor:

Several persons have written about the forthcoming school budget override stating that they have long since paid for their children’s education through property taxes and, therefore, it should not pass.

However, the amount any one family pays in property taxes for public education does not begin to cover the cost of educating a child through grades K-12.

The amount varies, of course, with the assessed valuation for one’s property, but for a $100,000 A.V. the amount of tax is approximately $300. This is a small portion of what the actual cost is when calculated on a per pupil basis.

The current total education is 19.4 million dollars including grants, state and federal monies. Dividing that amount by the current enrollment of 2,464 pupils the cost per child is $7,873. When the grants and other revenue sources are subtracted, the cost amounts to $14.9 million, resulting in a per pupil cost of $6,047 for just this year.

If the $6,047 is projected as a constant, which it won’t actually be, the cost to educate one child for grades K-12 (13 years) is $78,611. It would be 262 years of paying property taxes to fully pay for one child’s education.

The argument that one no longer has children in school and, therefore, can consider their “education debt” for their children to be paid is clearly not the case.

Since the increase in the tax burden for the override amounts to about $11, I believe that it is quite a bargain to maintain our schools at their current level. Eleven dollars might buy one a dinner at a local eatery or even a package of cigarettes. Please vote to pass the override.

H.R. Moran