Shared school costs

After reading the Jan. 27 letter advocating that only people with children pay for them to attend public school, through tuition, I decided to tally up, approximately, how much I have paid in property taxes for the past 50 years.

I used $5,000 per year as my base figure, which I think is generous. That comes to $250,000, and allowing 60 percent of that for school taxes comes to $150,000.

Having raised three children who attended public schools, that means that I have contributed $50,000 in taxes for each of them for their cumulative 36 years of schooling! There is no way that I could have provided their education for what I paid in "school taxes."

All of us can see that public education comes by pooling of our property tax dollars.

We all owe a big "Thank you" to the millions who have contributed to our educations. Our only payback is to follow their example.

This is not to say that we should not have high expectations from those who educate our young people as they attend those schools. That is a given. But to think that only those with children should invest in their future is shortsighted - and, most of all, selfish.

Trudy Bradley

Zebulon