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Friday, September 22, 2006

Who owns Public School?


How are Public Schools funded? Are public schools important? What precedent is the Lawrence School District setting? As a taxpayer do I have a right to close public schools? Is this debate one that should be held on a local, county, state or federal level?

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

I was appalled at this article that actual people felt that they needed to shut down public schools because they are a minority. I am disgusted that they didn’t take into consideration that other minorities are still present and do use the public schools as well. Even if these minorities don’t use the public school system, they reap the benefits of having a society that is educated from public school, in which these kids and even people have grown up, and have gotten jobs that help everyone, even these Jews who felt they didn’t need public schools. I think that this violates the whole purpose of school, and society because our country should be a diverse place, and not be separated by religions and races. School should be a place to mix, and be one or else your skipping out on the real world. These people can run away from the public now, but later on in life, they will probably be at the hands of a public school child. I think that these people were selfish and should be ashamed of themselves thinking that they should have the upper hand because they are a minority.

Anonymous said...

i dont see a point in this... the childern that are not goin to school is suffering because of the acts of adults because of paying alot of cash on the school, ok dont pay the extra money, but at least have the kids go to school to get some kinda of sense of life

Mighty Mojo said...

I agree with Zohra, to some extent, but I am not a fan of the way she worded her response. The Orthodox Jewish community in that area does not want to "shut down" the public school system, they just don't want to pay into it because they have their children in private schools. I don't think that anyone has a right to pick and choose which taxes they are willing to pay, especially school taxes, which support the community in which they live, however, being Orthodox Jewish really is a way of like (cliché, yes, I know, but still) and it is so much easier to have your child enrolled in a yeshiva school than have to send them to Hebrew school every day so that you never see them and have them do buckets of extra work. This way Religious education in included in their traditional education. But, like I said before, they still cannot decide that they aren’t going to pay taxes to support people in their community who do send their children to public school, even if they are the MAJORITY (Zohra) in that particular area. If this passes and they do get tax exempt status in this Lawrence, NY it will set a terrible precedent for many other communities and the public school system will have an even harder time with funding than it already has.
(I also have no idea what Nyshee is trying to say, but maybe that's just me...)

~joanna

Mighty Mojo said...

I really wanted to comment on the article about the Geneva Conventions! Stop closing off posts!!!

Anonymous said...

Schools are what give you an education. Withought it you wouldnt really have a decent job that pays enough. If the people in the jewish community shut down the schools then the children wouldnt really benifet. I agree with Zohra nyshee superfly and carolina becasue if the schools are shut down then the chilkdren would suuffer cause there not getting an education, and the people that are going to try to shutdown the schools are old and their time is almost up. I agree with carolina casue prvate school taxes are higher then public school taxes. Taxes are what you have to pay you cant pick which ones you have to pay. If you dont pay ur taxrd then u should go to jail.

Anonymous said...

Public schools are funded by the taxpayers?

I am very against what the Orthodox people in Lawrence are doing because I go to public school and I don't particulary want to go to nor support a Yeshiva! But you know, I really do admire them for being able to have so much power even though they are the minority. It takes some major guts (for lack of being able to use a better word) to shut down a school district in order to send your kids to a religious school that is specific to your sect's needs.

This debate should be on a local level. If the non-Orthodox people of Lawrence have a problem, then it is their RESPONSIBILITY to get off their butts and vote against the Orthodox jews!! I mean honestly, the Orthodox people are the minority!! Aren't they about 40% of the population?!

I love what zohra said about the unfairness of the situation. That the Orthodox Jews didn't consider everyone else, and that it is ultimately very selfish. But if they are being so selfish, can't the other 60% of the population counteract the selfishness of the Orthodox by going & voting at the school board meeting? Rather than complain maybe they should shutup/getup/&vote!

Anonymous said...

The first thing I have to say is that I love zohra's attitude about the subject because I agree with everything she said about the situation, she didn't hold back which makes a good debate. I agree with what she said about how "even if these minorities don’t use the public school system, they reap the benefits of having a society that is educated from public school". I don't think that the orthodox jews should get to close down a public school and force the rest of the people to travel to other schools that are out of their district. When I read the article I thought it was hilarious how the jews are running the school board when their kids do not even go to the public schools. They did that so they could have full control on the decisions, which I think is brilliant, but also sneaky. With that said I don't think that they should have to pay the same amount of taxes for the public school becuase they send their children to yeshiva's for religious reasons. One of my best friends goes to a yeshiva and they only difference with her school and mine is the dress code and the fact that she has many classes bassed on her religion. I think that private school is different because parents choose to take their kids out of public schools and put them into private schools and their reason is not religious based. If you try to close down the religious schools those groups of people would claim that they don't have freedom of religion because they can't have their own schools to teach kids their beliefs. I think the bottom line is that the orthodox jews shouldn't close down the public school and should pay a smaller amount of taxes for the school because they're sending their kids to a yeshiva for religious reasons.

Anonymous said...

just because people pay taxes don't give them rights to close public schools. if that was the case then they should give them the right to change alot of things. but besides that i understand where the jews are coming from because why pay for something that wont benifit them. just like a person that pays taxes and don't even have children. and they may feel that their money is going to waste with the children that are dropping out and not going to school. but closing public schools should never be an option.

Anonymous said...

I think that Public Schools are deffinatly one of the best things for pepople who cannot afford to live a "decent" life. The people weho eant to shut down th epublic schools are the ones who can afford to send their children to catholic/private schools. I mean I went to catholic school all my life until last year but that does NOT mean my family had the money or they thought i was more safe. Although now a days we hear on the news about public schools having violence, i still think they are more safer than catholic/private schools. For ex: Several Public Schools have metal dectectors to detect guns or weapons of any type. Also they have school safty gueards to protect outsiders from coming in. When i went back to vist my old High School last year i walked right in the front door and no-one said anything to me. Anybody could just walk into a school like that and go crazy. Also you may hear of violence in the P.S. system but realistically its the Catholic/Private schools that are all closing down!

Anonymous said...

Every school is funded from everyone that lives in this country. Everyone that lives in this country has to pay taxes, those taxes are then funded to pay school and build schools. These schools are called public schools, the reason why its called public school is because its paid by the public. The public school should be equal not judged by what race your from or what you god you believe in. School should be something where everyone doesnt matter whether your blue, white, black,brown whatever color you should not be judged. I think the jewish group that are saying these things are really being messed up and stuck up.