CB> I hope they put their money up front as well.  However, with so many 
CB> of our citizens distrusting government and calling for cuts in 
CB> taxes, services must be cut.  Don't you think the national call for 
CB> vouchers is really a call for privatization of education?  If 
CB> education were privatized, then tax support could be gradually 
CB> withdrawn.
    Tax support can be "gradually withdrawn" _without_ vouchers.  Wake up and 
smell the coffee.
    Inflation alone will guarantee that the worth of any school budget that 
cannot get increases from the legislature or voters will diminish sharply 
over as little as 20 years.  The "Rule of 70" in accounting says that 
inflation cuts spending power in half in 70 years divided by the CPI.  That 
means 3.5% inflation will cut the value of your per-pupil budget by half in 
20 years, unless you can get the voters (or their representatives) to up it.
    Public schools are a unique public service.  Unlike police, fire, and 
sanitation, not everyone gains substantially from the taxes all pay.  The 
aging of the U.S. population is already cutting into political support for 
public schools (was a big article in NEA Today).  Every parent who defects to 
private school is a parent very unlikely to vote for a tax hike.
    Unless public schools can "sell themselves" to the public, they are 
doomed in the long run politically.  Guilford County is considering a plan to 
use the schools as substation libraries and community centers...something 
that might make school-tax referendums more appealing to senior citizens.
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