The night before the news broke about the bloated tax increase for the Hamilton County Schools, a group of people showed up in our private neighborhood which clearly has signs stating No Trespassing, No Solicitation, Violators Will Be Prosecuted.
Hmmm, but here they were harassing folks out taking a walk, and ringing doorbells and speaking aggressively at your door at near dark. Lo and behold they were good old UnifiEd asking for us to open up our wallets to support their scheme, but everyone in this neighborhood that I talked to said they did not approve.
Furthermore, the local news has been providing biased reporting by one-sided stories telling that we are all so excited about this big money coming in for what we call a local liberal socialist agenda of taking from one group and giving it to another
First of all, this tax increase is only a swap of fees for families enrolled in this system so their taxes will equal what they are already paying thereby raising the taxes of everyone that chooses not to use this broken system to pay for it. And who wouldn't love somebody giving your own kids free money. Where does that leave us that chose otherwise because of a bad experience in this public school system.
I don't for a minute believe money will fix this problem, because it's a heart problem. Money cant fix a sick society. You can't throw God out of the classroom, take down and remove any mention of what this nation was founded on, then wonder why our kids are killing one another.
Our two main newspapers online had opinion polls with one having 61 percent against the increase with only 62 votes before it was removed from voting - that was strange, and another poll registering 78 percent against it with 2,500 votes. I am convinced that these numbers are true and relevant.
I am asking for the County Commission to vote no this week and consider an overhaul of what hasn't worked thus far, and be accountable to this community who would have to sacrifice their hard-earned money for someone else's risky investment.
Susan Darwin