10-14-2009, 03:25 AM
Kathy... obviously those families WITH children are, and will continue to bear the brunt of this situation... next year there will be 7 ADDITIONAL furlough days, for a total of 24.
I was addressing the idea of giving back to the community (I never addressed where to give) to those who are pointing fingers. We are ALL responsible for this, and the impacts will be felt for a long time.
I did not say that $62 alone will have an impact. I have always asked, how as a COMMUNITY, can we ALL help deal with this. The Punaweb community alone has many resources and talents. If we combine our resources and talents as a community, we can help.
ETA: Vouchers will not work well here until there are more schools to choose from.... most of the schools that could be voucher-ed already have long waiting lists....
ETA: I came up with the idea to give back our tax break on Sunday, sitting at church coffee hour, a group that was mostly like us, older, with no current child agers.
There was a heated discussion about how no one was willing to pay anymore taxes. I asked if anyone would be willing to pay a tax back, if it had not been collected. and many had said 'of course'.
I reminded them that the gas tax was not collected & asked if anyone was willing to pay that back.... there were a lot of laughs & 'sure, I'd pay that $0.12 back'.... I then reminded them of the actual cost.... $62 a year for every 10 gallons of gas used in a week....
Some started to realize that when that one tax was removed last year, without a budget changes & without our complaints, we ALL contributed to where the state is today....
As I have said many times, EACH OF US IS RESPONSIBLE, so what is everyone doing? not just the families with children.
I was addressing the idea of giving back to the community (I never addressed where to give) to those who are pointing fingers. We are ALL responsible for this, and the impacts will be felt for a long time.
I did not say that $62 alone will have an impact. I have always asked, how as a COMMUNITY, can we ALL help deal with this. The Punaweb community alone has many resources and talents. If we combine our resources and talents as a community, we can help.
ETA: Vouchers will not work well here until there are more schools to choose from.... most of the schools that could be voucher-ed already have long waiting lists....
ETA: I came up with the idea to give back our tax break on Sunday, sitting at church coffee hour, a group that was mostly like us, older, with no current child agers.
There was a heated discussion about how no one was willing to pay anymore taxes. I asked if anyone would be willing to pay a tax back, if it had not been collected. and many had said 'of course'.
I reminded them that the gas tax was not collected & asked if anyone was willing to pay that back.... there were a lot of laughs & 'sure, I'd pay that $0.12 back'.... I then reminded them of the actual cost.... $62 a year for every 10 gallons of gas used in a week....
Some started to realize that when that one tax was removed last year, without a budget changes & without our complaints, we ALL contributed to where the state is today....
As I have said many times, EACH OF US IS RESPONSIBLE, so what is everyone doing? not just the families with children.