Newest Industry - Latest Comments in Dave Winer on Silicon Valley, and a Rant on California Education Funding

Re: Dave Winer on Silicon Valley, and a Rant on California Education Funding

Sortroom.net — Tue, 29 Mar 2005 05:16:04 -0000

Tax and schools: the Proposition 13 way
Citing the inequity of the property taxes he pays on his homes in Omaha, Neb., and Laguna Beach, Buffett said the California cap on property taxes imposed by Prop. 13 "makes no sense."

Prop. 13 passed 25 years ago with 65 percent of the vote, and ...

Re: Dave Winer on Silicon Valley, and a Rant on California Education Funding

Eddie Dickey — Mon, 28 Mar 2005 22:23:11 -0000

We bought a home in Marin County 2 years ago (assesed value went from about 86K to 608K when property changed hands!). I agree with the comments above. Except that I think 'No Child Left Behind' throws a big nation-wide wrench into education where funding is tied to test scores. Our local school district is all about the test scores. My daughter is in Kindergarten and 'hates homework' already. And so I think that prop 13 is bad but I consider 'No Child Left Behind' to be the 'nation's most f'd up piece of legislation'.

Re: Dave Winer on Silicon Valley, and a Rant on California Education Funding

Robert Cassidy — Mon, 28 Mar 2005 19:06:41 -0000

And higher-ed in the state is ok only because there's a lag between when the money goes away and when the public sees it. I work at a UC and things aren't good. Same problems - too much administration. The premier public institution of the state now gets less than 25% of it's funding from the state. It'd be more accurate to call the UC a private education contractor to the state. That's not helping the education improve, because money doesn't flow in for teaching.

My kids learn more at home than at school. That's fine in my book, but a little more help would be appreciated.

And Prop 13 has to be the nations most f'd up piece of legislation and should be the poster child against voter legislation. It's sufficiently well crafted that I can't imagine it ever being repealed, and the legislators and governor are powerless against it.

The tax bill on our $700K home is about what Warren pays on his $4M home because Warren probably paid $450K for it when he bought it, same as us. The result is that few people here can afford to buy their first home given a starting price of about $500K, so the renters get reamed while the homeowners rake it in. The homeowners keep ramping up property values because they aren't being bled out by taxes, so they can keep buying up and up, further segregating the market. We were fortunate to work our way on the money train when we did.