The Special Ed Conundrum

First a little background.

Most of my adult life, I have lived in Lorain County, Ohio, just outside of the county that houses Cleveland. Almost every year, I drag myself to the polls and look at the ballot and there's Murray Ridge, asking for a levy renewal. What's Murray Ridge? They educate the most severely disabled and most marginalized kids in the county.

And every year, I always vote "YES," I don't even give it a second thought. Unless you are in the education business, you will never know how much it sucks to work at Murray Ridge.

What do I mean?

I work at, arguably, the richest school district in the county. Before Covid came, there were stacks of applications on administrator's desks for people wanting to come to our district. Down the road at Murray Ridge, they had no such surplus.

When Covid came through, people left the education business, across the board, in droves. No one wanted to work in little germ factories, but no one was harder hit than Murray Ridge. No matter how hard you tried, you couldn't explain social distancing to severely disabled teens. Being a special educator, whether as a teacher or an aide, is a very hands on profession, many mentally disabled youths don't have the concept of personal space. Unbeknownst to many, 2 years after Covid, Murray Ridge was on the brink.

Now, every district in Northeast Ohio is having staffing problems.

But now there's a new threat for Murray Ridge on the horizon, property tax repeal.

As long as I can remember, local schools in Ohio have mostly been funded through property taxes. Next year, there is going to be a constitutional amendment on the ballot that would eliminate property taxes in the state. School districts are sounding the alarm, but many Republicans and Libertarians are pushing hard for the initiative.

Some schools have seen these potential changes coming and have asked for payroll taxes, instead of property taxes, in the past few years. Those initiatives have been equally unpopular.

Which circles us back to today. Next month, Murray Ridge is actually asking for an increase in taxes for the next proposed levy. I am telling you, there is no appetite to pass that levy from the public.

None.

I will vote YES for Murray Ridge, because, despite any setbacks behind the scenes at Beacon of Speech, I still consider myself lucky to be where I'm at in my life. As an American, I can't imagine any group that deserves my tax money more than severely disabled teens.

That Murray Ridge is on the cusp of not surviving, is an indictment on how schools are funded in America, not on Murray Ridge itself.

You say there shouldn't be property taxes for schools, money should come from the state? Republican candidate for governor, Vivek Ramaswamy, just last month, proposed cutting the education budget and wanted to consolidate the state's University System. Is he in favor of eliminating the property tax? Ramaswamy "is not currently in favor of completely eliminating property taxes, but instead advocates for a major "rollback" or reduction to pre-COVID levels."

As a libertarian leaning website, how do we reconcile voting for tax increases?

Easy.

At the Local Level - Taxes should be used for Police, Fire, EMS, Schools.

At the State Level - Taxes should be used for Infrastructure and Schools.

At the Federal Level - Taxes should be used for Infrastructure, Standing Army, and Social Security.

I'm sure I'm missing something, but I am not a Libertarian Purist, you cannot privatize everything. How would you propose educating disabled children in a privatized set up?

You say those kids aren't learning much anyhow, they can be absorbed back into their local districts. (Who don't have the money to spend on them, either?)

I do not have that level of coldness in my heart.

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