Do bonds actually help Bay Area schools?

In a recent e-mailer, the Libertarian Party of SCC argues that education-centric bonds (e.g., the measures proposed in Los Gatos/Campbell school districts) are inefficient, unproductive, and distract attention from the real priority: empowering parents to make cogent decisions “as they see fit.” The LPSCC’s take on bonds, public education, and government overreach follows.

LPSCC opposes those so-called education investments as money grabs that would burden struggling parents now, and their children and grandchildren for decades. Most of the funds would go either to contractors for facilities projects—having nothing to do with helping children recover academically from declining test scores or learning loss suffered during agonizing shutdowns—or to the financial institutions servicing the gigantic interest payments on the debt.

“Both individuals and businesses have been in significant financial stress, first from the pandemic and now from record inflation,” said Dehn. “This is an especially bad time for tax increases of any kind.”

Also weighing in was Ed Wimmers, a former LPSCC chairman and a parent, who believes that not everything in life that’s important or valuable requires a government solution funded by taxpayers.

“Education is primarily the concern of parents—not the government,” said Wimmers. “The best way to achieve high-quality education is to empower parents by eliminating government’s perpetual, costly funding of schools, permitting parents to keep their tax dollars to spend it on their children’s education as they see fit. That would entail separating school and state—a Libertarian solution that, frankly, we should be seriously considering.”

This email was originally published by the Libertarian Party of Santa Clara County.

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Image by David Sawyer