Property Tax Funding For Public Schools Research Paper

Property Tax Funding For Public Schools - Research Paper Example Instead of doing that, they make equal per-student funding available from their â€Å"General Tax Revenues† for all schools statewide. Most of the Americans declare that they are the supporters of the â€Å"Equal Funding† for the public schools, but the wealthy and the influential citizens often resist the attempts to remove the funding discriminations. This disagreement may be a sign of unawareness about the funding disparities, thoughtless approval of the conventional & long established methods for funding of education, and egotistical yearning to maintain the â€Å"Personal Taxes† at a low rate. The â€Å"Legal and Political† attempts to modify and remove the inequalities have been feeble at the â€Å"Federal Level†. But significant commotion has started to take place in the state courts and governing bodies. This paper ends with suggestions and policy propositions for struggling â€Å"Political and Cultural† conflict to reform. Introducti on: Property taxation and school funding are inter-linked with each other in United States. It has been known that almost half of the property tax revenue is used for funding public, elementary and secondary schools. It has become a hot topic to debate, across the United States as to which extent the public schools should be supported by the funds collected from property taxes. School funding is a controversial topic and it has become a matter to be resolved for almost every state.   It has been estimated  that independent school districts receive 96% of their tax revenues from property taxes. This makes it clear that public school funding rely more on property taxation as compare to grants collected from local government (Fisher, 2007). Whereas on the other hand, almost half of the total property tax revenue collected are also in financing public elementary and secondary schools in the United States. According to the statistics of 2004-2005, United States spent total of $488.5 billion on public elementary and secondary education, with nearly 47 percent of the funds received from state sources, 44 percent funds obtained by local sources with just 9 percent of the contributions derived from federal sources. However, it is a known fact that local funds are mainly received from taxes, primarily the property tax. Since 1952, local governments’ dependence on property taxes has dropped, whether measured as a percentage of local tax revenue, own source general revenue, or total general revenue. There have been quite many strong views on both property taxation and school finance. The strongest statements typically in general disapprove of local property taxes or their use for funding education. A latest assessment of policies in the New England states, a region that rely more greatly on property taxes than the rest of the country, faces strong criticism for this dependence, as stated by Pierce and Johnson (2006) that high property taxes along with the weigh t and perverse incentives they generate, the frenzy they create, the overall town to town school funding inequities they grow typically symbolizes a never-ending series of nightmares for New England. Thus as recommended by the authors, its has been noticed  that New England states need to restructure their  tax systems by lowering their dependency on

Environmental problems report Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Environmental problems report - Essay Example Due to the very nature of the tropical rainforests, these places not only experience higher level of temperature but also witness higher level of rain. What is more important about tropical rainforests is the biodiversity which they encourage and possess. Over 10% of the earth’s surface is covered by the tropical rainforests therefore they play an important role in balancing the overall environment of the earth. However, deforestation of tropical forests and its persistent occurrence has created stronger consequences for the biodiversity as well as environment of the earth. The systematic removal of the forest area so that they can be used for other purposes is what is called tropical deforestation. This report will discuss the ecological reasons for tropical deforestation and will also discuss some of the possible solutions which can be implemented to reduce the occurrence. Ecological Reasons of Tropical Deforestation One of the key and most documented reasons for the tropica l deforestation is the agriculture. It has been suggested that subsistence farming has been one of the real cause as to why tropical rainforests are being destroyed. ... s therefore in order to sustain higher level of population growth and to accommodate humans within the overall eco-system, tropical deforestation quickened during last 100 years. (Simon, Dickey , & Reece, 163) It has been argued that though tropical deforestation may provide advantage to human life however, it can have also devastating effects on other species and the environment as a whole. What is also critical to understand that overall devastation caused by tropical deforestation is not just limited to the local environment but to the global environment too. The interaction of humans with the environment and how they actually use the environment to fulfill their needs however many species actually are microhabitats in these forests. Due to this dependence of other biological species on the survival of forests, it becomes critically important the overall pace of deforestation is slowed down. The overall changes in the trees as well as the insects and other biological organisms red uce the ability of the forests to actually sustain the environment over the longer period of time. (Lindsey, 2007) Ecological reasons also indicate that in certain areas, especially in Asia, the overall intensity of the climate is on the rise. This intense climate changes create droughts and precipitation. This increase in precipitation and intensity in the temperature is also seen as one of the key reasons as to why tropical forests are decreasing in their overall size. Another important ecological reason for tropical deforestation is the increasing demand from developed countries of the material found in the tropical forests. Tropical forests are rich in producing rubbers, lumber and other active ingredients which are used by the pharmaceutical companies. The higher and sustained rise in