Educating the homeless
December 22nd, 2006
Opinion
Last week, the Addison Independent (John Flowers) ran an article entitled “Homelessness knows no holiday in county”. The statistics cited in this article are staggering.
“Ready pointed to state figures showing more than 4,000 Vermonters have been homeless during the past three years — and more than 25 percent of that population have been children.” … “And thousands of Vermonters — nearly half of the almost 71,000 households who rent — can’t afford the rent for a modest two-bedroom apartment, which averages $797 per month across Vermont,”…
It’s no secret that we fund Vermont’s extraordinary educational system with ever increasing property taxation. Can’t leave any child behind – but apparently we have no trouble leaving them out in the cold. Unfortunately, there are many of us “more affluent” Vermonters – and flat landers – that pay in taxes more than would cover the average rent for more than half these 71,000 “Vermonters”. Given the real cost of property includes the cost of taxation (we don’t really own the property… just try not paying your tax and see what happens…) I doubt many of these less fortunate Vermonters will have much luck in finding a place to live. So we have improved our children’s education by moving them out into the cold? I suspect this fact alone has more to do with the less than stellar results of our improved educational system. Ain’t so? Well then, let’s up them taxes again and get ourselves some real teachers…
Ah… unintended consequences.
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