In lieu of hacking something out while I should be focusing on the impending due date of my English project, I share with you a good comment left on an old post that would normally have fallen by the wayside:
I was also at that debate between Marshall and Roemmelt, trying to see what my voting options on Nov 8th would be. Easy enough to decide, after this debate. It’s Bruce Roemmelt, by a long shot.
Bob Marshall is focused on the wrong issues. And his views: Abortion is less safe now than when it was illegal?? Livers might grow out of one’s brain from stem cell research?? ADULTS in Virginia state colleges/universities should not have access to birth control products?? The GI Bill, which was available to vets like me in exchange for serving our country, in my case thousands of miles from home for three years, is an “education voucher”?? Education vouchers will “save public schools money.”?? THIS is what he focuses on, as my representative in Richmond??
I wrote to Del. Marshall recently, seeking clarification on his proposal for a $2,200 per child education “voucher”, for children that attend private school. He told me, via email, that “since the state spends about $13,900 per student attending public school, that public education would save $13,900 for each student that leaves the overcrowded public school system and attends private school.” Marshall went on to state that “conventional math tells you that a $2,200 education voucher still leaves $11,700 in savings to the public education system (i.e. alleged $13,900 savings minus the $2,200 voucher = $11,700 net savings to public education).”
That is VERY “creative accounting”. In the first place, it ignores that public education systems have certain “fixed costs” that are not reduced if you reduce the student population. Things like the interest paid on bonds issued to build schools, buy school buses, etc. Insurance, utilities, facilities maintenance, etc. And “variable costs”, like teacher salaries, won’t go down much, since there is a shortage of teachers currently - so lay-offs of teachers will not happen. But giving $2,200 per student attending private school to taxpayers who can afford private school WILL impact public education funding.
And, Marshall’s creative accounting proposal for education subsidies also ignores that many children are already in private schools, and therefore they will have no impact on public school population size, as he suggest will be a benefit of his education subsidy proposal. But it WILL take $2,200 per child from public education. If 5,000 kids attend private schools in PW County, that’s $11 MILLION per year in lost funding. Currently, about 70,00 kids attend PW County schools. And about 3,000 currently attend private schools, I believe. that means that only 2,000 more might leave public schools in the county. That is a less than 3% reduction in PW County’s student population. And that assumes that the private schools in the area could absorb another 2,000 students into their facilities. I have my doubts.
Not to mention that (OK, I will) that a $2,200 subsidy per student is not even half of the typical costs for a private school education here in Northern VA. So, only the financially well-off will be able to take advantage of Bob Marshall’s education subsidy proposal. Not police, not firefighters, not blue-collar workers, not lower middle-class incomes and not many middle-class incomes. But, Delegate Marshall would take advantage of his subsidy proposal; he already has his five children in private schools, so the $11,000 annual taxpayer subsidy ($2,200 X five) would come in handy for him, wouldn’t it?
I sincerely believe that Bob Marshall, after 7 terms in office (14 years), is in need of a new career. And, here’s hoping that enough of us here in the 13th District feel the same way. I am voting for Bruce Roemmelt as my state delegate on November 8th, 2005.
5 Comments
and here’s what i’ve got to say.
1) you can’t vote. hah.
2) im sure that’s not the complete story. i mean you have to admit there is some basis for his ideas. by proposing an idea like that it’s not set it stone that that’s exactly how everything in a law is going to be worded. I mean, they could make it so it only applied to students switching from public to private schools, or that the amount gets based on family income. if they only gave the allowance to lower class families, then it would avoid a problem of the high-income children switching, which would end up causing less money going into the school systems and their programs.
and you said he picked the wrong issues? what would you like to see. better educations lead to higher ipc’s, less poverty, a better economy, and overall less violence and such.
but you’re entitled to your opinion. =p
First off I thank the Lord for bringing forth to my blog someone who is not old enough to set off the pedophile alarms. Hi Rachel.
Of course I didn’t write that. This I did write on him. Well, actually, all of this.
My main opposition to Marshall is not neccesarily the voucher plan, but his unnerving tendency to focus on bills regulating sex, abortion, and gays. His intrusive bedroom legislation overshadows any real progress he could make for his district.
Marshall’s proposal was also ONLY for HOMEOWNER’S. Renters - well, they could go get screwed. (Even though renters pay just as much real estate tax - via their rent - renter’s just don’t get to write it off on their taxes!)
And I’d love to know where he gets his $13,900 figure from. That is waaaaaay off base. It’s about $7500 per student - across the state. The northern jurisdictions pay for that, by and large, out of local property taxes. In the “poorer” areas of the state, the southwest for example, only about $500-$1000 of that comes from local taxes and the state picks up the rest (meaning you and me in more prosperous areas & business too). So where does he get $14K from? Adding in the Dept of Education maybe?
Delegate Marshall did not suggest to me that his education proposal was for homeowners only - but if that is so, then his proposal is even more inequitable.
Del Marshall also did not tell me where he got the $13,900 figure from,either. But, reducing the student population by any number does not “save” $13,900 for each student that switches from public to private schools. Nor would it save the $7,500 average cost figure that Olivia suggests is a more reasonable figure. Fixed costs do not get reduced because you reduce your “customer base” (i.e. the student population) - that is why they are FIXED COSTS. And, while some variable costs would go down (eg textbooks), most would not, for the reasons cited. But the public education system WOULD lose a very real $2,200 per student attending private school.
And Rachel: that is EXACTLY what Delegate Marshall told me, in his email reply to me. He did not suggest that his education taxpayer subsidy might be “means tested”. What he said was that the school system would “save” $13,900 per student that attends private school.
And…actually, I can vote. I am a 51 year-old veteran, with two kids and a Brazilian wife. And it is my fondest hope that enough of us finally vote Delegate Marshall out of public office and elect Bruce Roemmelt, a veteran like myself, a career firefighter, a PhD, and someone with an understanding that LOCAL political office is where one focuses on LOCAL matters - like traffic, education, etc. - and not on matters like writing on House of Delegates stationery to members of Congress to ask them to interfere with a very private family matter (that is, the Terri Schiavo family matter) because of some moral superiority perspective. If you want your local state delegate to waste taxpayer resources on matters such as interfering with very private family matters of citizens, then by all means vote for this guy Marshall…if you live in the 13th district.
But, I for one have had enough of his moral superiority (abortion was SAFER when it was illegal?? C’mon, that’s nuts. And he actually said that at the debate in September), and therefore hope that Bruce Roemmelt wins on November 8th. And my wife and I will be two votes in Bruce Roemmelt’s column on November 8th.
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