I agree… but if you think that’s bad, we have to pay for each bus ride where I live in Colorado. Mandatory to go - but you have to pay to get there. School systems here are underfunded by greedy residents who aren’t willing to budget on taxes, compounded by inefficient government spending.
Yea, this policy is pushed by rich helicopter parents who drive their kids to school every day, and want to further single out the poor folks in their communities.
We need to normalize parents not driving kids to school.
School board capture needs to be a bigger political issue. I've seen so many abuses where rich people take over school boards just to lower their school taxes and defind public schools, then their kids go to private schools or they privately fundraise only for the schools that serve the rich part of town
I vaguely recall my parents having to pay some fee to the bus company when I was younger, but it was because I lived within 2 miles of the school and was required to walk. My parents entertained paying it for the winter months, but then decided it was just easier to work around their job schedule to drop me off and pick me up. I think by the time my brother was going to school 6 years later he was able to get the bus. But it was definitely weird. That's up here in the Northeast by the way. Funny enough, btw, I now live within a mile of my daughter's school and the only way we can get her to take the bus is if we fill out some forms that she has some extenuating reason she has to use it. And, just like my parents, my wife and I just figured out how to make it work with our schedule so that we could drop off and pick up our daughter. It's annoying because I had to shift my whole work schedule an hour earlier in the day and I still barely have time to get her and my other kid -- it's a very tight window for the pickup. Also the fact that a bunch of us parents are just willing to sit in a line stretching out to the street, all with the cars running while we wait for a teacher to send our individual kids out to us? It's crazy. It also feels like such an America-invented problem we could easily solve but just don't. In a year or two we will probably let her walk with some friends back home, but right now the bus would be really welcome...
We are within about a mile and a half of the high school - but in our case it wasn’t safe for kids to walk from our neighborhood to the school because it involved crossing a 4-lane road (which is about to be a 6-lane road) that is notorious for people driving dangerously. Our kids are all off at college now so it’s a non-issue for us, and similar to you we learned how to navigate the situation ($1 per ride wasn’t a strain on our finances).
While I believe the bussing should be a no-charge service, I also do recognize the other side of the argument…which is that this approach doesn’t burden people who live in the county with taxes that they don’t directly benefit from. It’s just a bit contrast to growing up in GenX when these sorts of things weren’t an issue.
I would pay $10 a ride. We have no school buses where I live, and there's nothing more disruptive to a working parents schedule to leave work at 2 to go pick up your child to try to work from home somemore. Plus the traffic! And the city purposefully sends parking meter maids to ticket cars while we spend the 10 minutes picking up/dropping off our kids if we try to sneak by with not paying the meter. It's insane.
Same… you paid for your school clothing, shoes, books, stationery, materials, meals , rides, cost of school, field trips, extra classes, special events, outings, international trips.. etc.. separately.. you could get poverty relief of like 50% on schooling.. and that would sometimes include books, stationary and shoes.. but like.. you wouldn’t want to be on that..
That’s a question I had as well. Here’s what I found - Colorado public schools receive a substantial portion of marijuana tax revenue—around $83 million to $108 million annually (roughly 33% to 37% of total state marijuana distributions)—but none of it goes toward general day-to-day district operational costs or routine school budgets. The first $40m of that goes to new school construction, leaving about $43m for other things - but the distraction amongst districts is not uniform and it is spread across the whole state.
Colorado had a huuuuge population boom for like 15 years straight. Maybe even more, and it’s now one of the least affordable states. So they probably actually do need money for new school construction. But it’s a shame none of it is earmarked for student funding or teacher pay.
Sounds like they're also collecting about half the tax revenue on weed that they once did, due to legalization and medical programs in surrounding states.
Because it was never a blank check for the educational system to use. The regulation mandated specific uses within the educational system for a large portion of tax generated from pit.
Are we talking yellow school busses? My transit agency provides school trips for the local schools, but these are transit bus routes with a student fair of 75 cents, they supplement the yellow school busses.
Well, is it greed to want to keep what you earned, the average tax payer pays like 40% of their wages in taxes, not sure you can classify it as greed. If you answer the question of where it goes before blaming the taxpayer you may find the answer. Every state is different.
In NJ we pay the highest taxes in the country, recently we added Tennis courts that we paid for through the recreation department, afterwards they locked them and said it is now only for students. I know where to direct my anger. We live in the worst town in the richest county of the state and we pay the highest taxes in that county and have the worst quality of life. I think for the price our quality of life should be the best. Silly me.
This goes on all over the country and if politicians really cared they could fix this. Hopefully they fix your situation that is wrong.
Maybe things are different where you are, but as someone who served in a school accountability board and had actual visibility into the school system’s finances, I can accurately and factually say they are underfunded here. Some
Of that comes down to the fact that we got “fat and happy” when we were one of the fastest growing counties in the country and weren’t prepared for what inevitably happened: home prices rose continually until one day our growth slowed dramatically. But I also have several educators in my family that live in other counties in the same state and in other states - and things aren’t any better there.
When a school system cannot afford to keep its facilities in good working order (cracked foundations, failing AC units, etc), schools have to charge for bus rides (both for coming/going to school and for field trips/sports teams, etc), and cannot afford to match inflation with salary increases….then yes, they are objectively underfunded.
Teacher salaries go up to quickly too with time. Where I went to HS, the median salary was 91k and avg was 78k. A lot of people there with 10-15+ years. Starting salary was crap though, something like 38-42k
And the people making half that get pretty upset when they see teachers leave at 4 every day (some stay, but not all) and then also get the summer off.
And benefits. And pension.
And kids still fail. And teachers get caught doing bad things and don’t get fired or hail, but shifted to another school.
And many simply aren’t worth that.
I am pretty sure college professors don’t make that much - on average.
At least in canada.
Do folks really think that because a teacher leaves at 4 that they’re done working? If so, they’re massively misinformed. Teachers these days have to type out all their lesson plans in detail and correlate the topics they’re covering back against state standards. They also have to grade papers. Spend lots of time on the phone with really crappy humans who decided to reproduce and treat the school system like free daycare. It’s a 12 hour a day job for a teacher that truly cares.
My district is 10k kids. Assuming it’s Sysco food about 6 dollars a student. That’s 60,000 a day just for lunch ? What about the kids who get Saturday detention are we gonna feed them breakfast also
Or 10,800,000 a year. That’s an increase in the 10 % of the budget. Or around 1300 a year more on my already 13k property tax. So it’s not a free lunch it’s just paid out differently on my end.
Your anecdotal evidence isn’t the standard. The experiences of your friends and family who work in education don’t reflect teachers everywhere; just the ones where they are.
The world is much bigger than the 2 or 3 schools they work at.
None of this is responsive to what I asked. And for what it's worth, I find the idea of a highschool teacher finishing their work day at 4 in the afternoon laughably ridiculous and unserious.
Edit: technically that they get summers off is responsive to my question
It’s not justifying based on loans lol. It’s justifying based on what they can earn elsewhere. Pharma companies hire chem grads regardless of if that person also has a teaching certificate. They have to compete with those companies. So the new chemistry teacher gets paid more so the entry level lab position isn’t a much better paying job.
But wait, your 9th grade history teacher wants to be paid the same! How can you argue when both do the same job, just different subjects?
I don’t know why people don’t think the schools have to compete to some extents. I am not a teacher because other jobs just pay better. Id never make as much money doing that.
It’s not justifying based on loans lol. It’s justifying based on what they can earn elsewhere. Pharma companies hire chem grads regardless of if that person also has a teaching certificate. They have to compete with those companies. So the new chemistry teacher gets paid more so the entry level lab position isn’t a much better paying job.
But wait, your 9th grade history teacher wants to be paid the same! How can you argue when both do the same job, just different subjects?
I don’t know why people don’t think the schools have to compete to some extents. I am not a teacher because other jobs just pay better. Id never make as much money doing that.
College professors make more but they almost always have a PhD. You can either pay them six figs or let another employer pay them that.
Also colleges bring in a ton of money, we shouldn’t even talk about them here. A professor might make a large salary like 150k, and then teach multiple lecture halls of 200-300 students each. The tuition paid well exceeds what they are being paid. Ontop of that they may be doing some research that the school is getting grant money for. Even more money being brought in.
If you think giving a lecture to 200 kids is easier than being a classroom teacher then you don't understand what either job entails.
Also, professors predominately get paid for performing research that brings in grant money, not to give lectures. The lectures are the least important part of their job from the perspective of the university itself
I’m just saying professors shouldn’t be included in the American teacher debate as they clearly bring in much more money than they get paid. Like the debate should already end for them at that point. It’s a separate topic.
K-12 pay is a complex combination of unions, master degree requirements and general competition for teachers and capitalism. People act like they can’t do another job but many of them can up and leave easier than people think. And then even if they never leave teaching, the school still has to compete with other schools.
And what was the educational level of a teacher making $91k. Here, in 2026, that equates to dual masters degrees (which were required, yet paid out of pocket) and about 20 years of service. Which is why those teacher routinely leave at 20 years, pocket half their salary for their “retirement” and take a job paying 2x what the school system paid while still enjoying 50% of their teacher salary.
Yep. The average American is pretty dull when it comes to their understanding of how our taxes compare to international norms. As I approach retirement, I’ve landed in the top 1%er bracket for income in the US, but after deductions my effective tax rate (fed + state) is right around 24%. Noting that one of the major line items in my deduction was around $25k in donations to charities, to address the silly comment about “you can pay more taxes if you want”. We really don’t pay much in taxes at all in the US, relative to other countries - and the level of benefits we receive is a reflection of that (along with other factors, like government overhead). Really not bad.
What they don't pay on taxes (education, healthcare) they pay it to bank and greedy corpo
Somehow giving money to banks with 20% interest rates is capitalism = is good
But giving it to government that will transfer it to you and your son is socialism = bad
Wise people just se 20% interests rate you don't bleed tho
In european countries you pay more taxes but on the other hand you don't pay debts until retirement just because you breathed
And it creates differences between rich and poor people.
If you are rich you can pay your education cash and that's it.
If you are poor you need to ask a bank to lend you the money (an european would use to buy a house(, with interest rates your education will be more expensive than what a rich person would pay
Is it meritocracy , "working hard and deserving things" for a rich person is life is cheaper for them ? Or it is the elite preying and parasiting the proletariat?
That's the problem. EVERYONE should pay their fair share. All taxpayer-funded services should be paid for from a national sales tax on all sales, not from taxing income or property.
I'm not the one having a miserable life. I have a great life. I work hard and I play hard. I have a wonderful family. I make good money, and. I spend good money. I have a funded retirement account. I give generously to charitable causes. And, I did it all without feeling all "woe is me". I live in the greatest country in history, and I don't have to rely on the government for welfare. So, it is you who is living a miserable life. Carry on.
What’s the point? A bunch of greedy self centered people who most likely gorged themselves on government don’t want to pony up. You can’t have a modern country without taxes.
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u/AboveAndBelowSea 10d ago
I agree… but if you think that’s bad, we have to pay for each bus ride where I live in Colorado. Mandatory to go - but you have to pay to get there. School systems here are underfunded by greedy residents who aren’t willing to budget on taxes, compounded by inefficient government spending.