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[quote=Anonymous] OP here again. I know we’re supposed to be civil on the forums but I can hardly believe that you’re a teacher at a top private because your logic is twisted and disjointed to leads me to fear for the kids you teach, and if you really are a teacher please let me know so I don’t send my kids there.

I think a lot of you don’t seem to understand the argument I’ve been making and that’s fair since most people react emotionally rather than thinking out a planned response. I said nothing about public schools, I don’t intend to send my kids to public, and I don’t intend to ever move to the suburbs (even though Chevy Chase and Bethesda are nice). Here again is my argument in the most dumbed down version I can explain it in.

Currently we have a lot of privates in DC that have about 50% or so of their kids being out of staters (VA and MD) and about 50% in District residents. We don’t care how poor, rich, white or black etc these DC kids are, we just care about the fact that they are part of the jurisdiction. So the out of state kids, drive in (use of roads), parents might break laws (talking on cell phones while driving), GDS students getting in to altercations, trashing the neighborhood etc. which require law enforcement, park in residential zones (taking up the use of the most limited resource; land) etc, and pay nothi9ng for the use of these services. The schools being tax exempt aren’t forced to pay taxes and thus the District residents are being deprived tax dollars than can be used for anything. Doesn’t matter how much or how little.

Now on the other side, if that land, and building that school X was a non tax-exempt structure, for example a strip mall with restaurants (just an example), and it had 50% of its customers being out of state residents, District residents would still see some kind of benefit. There would be property taxes from the land, sales taxes from the goods and services sold, and income taxes from the businesses. It doesn’t matter where that money goes since that is a different argument; the fact is that we would get a net benefit.

So if these schools aren’t giving us a tangible benefit, i.e. they’re educating non-District residents and not paying for our resources then we as District residents should start to think about this seriously. I’m tired of people with Maryland plates parking in front of my driveway or almost running over my dog and I while I take a morning walk just because they’re late in dropping their kids off to school, when I know they and their institution don’t pay a cent in taxes that benefit my community.

Comprende? 
[/quote]

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