[speaker001:] I'll let you go first.
[speaker002:] [TV] Well I think, I don't know how your schools work back there but we support our schools here with property taxes.
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] And the land owners or home owners are the ones that pay the school tax. So if you're renting a house or doing anything else, you're not actually contributing to the education of your children. And I think that's wrong, I think everybody should contribute to the education of their children even if they had to raise the sales tax by one percent then everybody going through the state would be supporting our education system. So, as it turns out, we don't really have a tremendous education system because they don't have the money they need to run it.
[speaker001:] Yeah, I, uh, I spent a couple, uh, years down in, uh, Plano, Texas.
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] And, uh, I was one of the home owners down there that got taxed to death,
[speaker002:] Yeah.
[speaker001:] for the, uh, Plano, uh, school system.
[speaker002:] Yeah.
[speaker001:] And, uh, I, f-, you know, I know that Texas doesn't have a state tax,
[speaker002:] No, huh-uh.
[speaker001:] and so all the things come out of the, the property taxes,
[speaker002:] Yeah.
[speaker001:] and I was, uh, really shocked at the amount of taxes I ended up paying. I was, I was better off paying a state tax mo-, back in Maryland, where, [breathing] [LAUGHTER],
[speaker002:] Yeah, yeah you would be.
[speaker001:] than I was, uh, paying the, uh, property tax down there. Uh, what they did in Maryland to get around that is they, uh, they developed a renters tax solely for the purpose of paying for the services,
[speaker002:] Oh.
[speaker001:] that the renters were getting including the, uh, educational services.
[speaker002:] Yeah.
[speaker001:] And, uh, the tax was administered by, uh, the, uh, rental company that actually was managing the apartments so when,
[speaker002:] Oh.
[speaker001:] uh, long, long time ago, when I used to live in apartments, I would pay a rent payment every month and a tax payment every month.
[speaker002:] Gee.
[speaker001:] And the tax payment went to pay for the services that I was getting as a, a resident of that particular county.
[speaker002:] Yeah.
[speaker001:] And, uh, that's the way it worked. Here in Maryland we have, uh, a certain portion of your, your property taxes, uh, goes to education,
[speaker002:] Yeah.
[speaker001:] but also a portion of the state tax that you pay goes back into the county that you live in, to pay for the educational system.
[speaker002:] Oh, well that's pretty good.
[speaker001:] And so it, it works out nice, it, it, it makes it so that the, uh, whole county now, I, I know the concept of counties in Texas is quite a bit different than it is here in Maryland, uh, like Collin County, uh, would only equal about maybe an eighth the size of Baltimore County, here in Maryland.
[speaker002:] Oh, yeah.
[speaker001:] I mean the, the counties are much larger.
[speaker002:] Yeah.
[speaker001:] You know, in the, the whole state of Maryland I believe there's only like, uh, fifteen counties.
[speaker002:] Gee whiz.
[speaker001:] And, so, uh, you know each county has their own school system an, and it works out real nice. Um, the, the flip side to this is, are we getting what we're paying for,
[speaker002:] Yeah.
[speaker001:] and I don't believe so, um. A lot of things have come to head recently and I heard a report because, of, uh, uh, the emphasis that the President was putting on education, you know,
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] uh, him running as our education president and then finally a couple of years later getting around to doing something.
[speaker002:] Yeah.
[speaker001:] Um, they said since they imposed the federal regulations on education, in other words, they came up with this federalized system where everyone in the third grade would be taught basically the same thing.
[speaker002:] Yeah.
[speaker001:] And, then, at the end of, uh, school year they would be tested and then they go into the fourth grade and everybody in the fourth grade's basically taught the same thing.
[speaker002:] Yeah.
[speaker001:] So when they came up with these, this nationwide system of public schools, uh, they gave some figures out and since it's inception, uh, they've, the price has gone up per stu-, the prices paid by the federal government per student has been thirty-three percent.
[speaker002:] Yow.
[speaker001:] And so they're actually spending thirty-three percent, and that's real dollars, you know,
[speaker002:] Yeah.
[speaker001:] adjusting it back to, to the days, you know, when it started, uh, probably, you know, seventy years ago. And what they've said is that we haven't had a thirty-three percent improvement in education.
[speaker002:] No, huh-uh.
[speaker001:] We've actually gone backwards.
[speaker002:] Well they say that Texas schools are some of the lowest in the nation. That our high school graduates can't even match the national average.
[speaker001:] Yeah.
[speaker002:] So, you know, our school system down here is no where near perfect but they keep complaining they don't have the money to do it.
[speaker001:] Yeah, well, they, they've been having some problems, uh, even here in, uh, like Baltimore City which is, a, a, pretty good ci-, goo-, good sized city.
[speaker002:] Yeah.
[speaker001:] Uh, they've been putting a lot of, uh, stress on it and of course, speaking of stress the teachers are all getting stressed out from trying to, you know, do everything they're supposed to do and of course they've, uh, been cutting the teachers salaries,
[speaker002:] Oh, yeah.
[speaker001:] because they say we don't have the money to do it and,
[speaker002:] Yeah.
[speaker001:] all the services are costing more money and, and everything, uh, but the-, uh, a lot of emphas-, now is being put on, you know, when children used to be taught, you know, like, uh, uh, each child is individual,
[speaker002:] Yeah.
[speaker001:] you know, they're not all the same and
[speaker002:] Yeah, they need to take things at their own speed.
[speaker001:] some students do horrible until like eighth grade, some do horrible, you know, until they get to like tenth grade,
[speaker002:] Yeah.
[speaker001:] and then all of a sudden everything clicks in, you know. And then there are some students that, you know, read well at five years old,
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] and, you know, seem to excel. And so that, the, you know, one of the things I heard proposed on, uh, one of the public radio stations up here was that we should go back to teaching children at their own speed. Some ki-,
[speaker002:] Yeah, I think it'd be a lot better.*note period needs slash unit
[speaker001:] Yeah.
[speaker002:] You know each child has to learn at his own rate, they can't keep force feeding things to each other and,
[speaker001:] And, and, uh,
[speaker002:] or, you know, at the kids.
[speaker001:] and on top of that they, they make the child feel inferior,
[speaker002:] Uh-huh, because he can't do it.
[speaker001:] because he's not as good as another kid his same age. I mean, it's like, you know, that's ridiculous.
[speaker002:] And it's not that he can't do it, he just can't do it quite as fast, or,
[speaker001:] Yeah, and, uh, you know, I have, uh, I, I have five children total,
[speaker002:] Yeah.
[speaker001:] and I've got two out of the house already and I ha-, I have two that are in, uh, eighth grade this year.
[speaker002:] All right.
[speaker001:] And prior to their, um, when I, when they were in elementary school they were identi-, identified as being slow.
[speaker002:] Yeah.
[speaker001:] And so they put them into special programs and then we actually held them back in fourth grade.
[speaker002:] Um.
[speaker001:] And it wasn't until the last two years, um, last year my, uh, they're they're a set of twins,
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] um, a boy and a girl. Last year the, the, uh, boy twin started doing real well.
[speaker002:] All right.
[speaker001:] And it, it, everything started to click in for him and he knew what he needed to do. Um, and this year it, it happened for, uh, for the daughter.
[speaker002:] Um, all right.
[speaker001:] She just has been,
[speaker002:] Jumped on out there.
[speaker001:] really doing great this year and she has the right attitude towards school and everything.
[speaker002:] That's good.
[speaker001:] And I think it's just a matter of everybody has to find their own path. I remember when I was in school, I did horrible up until about,
[speaker002:] Yeah, I did too, up until ninth or tenth grade.
[speaker001:] yeah, about the seventh, eighth grade I, I, I started to, to come around and realize an, and basically I got interested in math,
[speaker002:] Yeah.
[speaker001:] and, uh, never really did well in english but, you know once you got interested in something and things started to click in place then after that you take off.
[speaker002:] Yeah, and see when I was a kid growing up and going to high school if I wanted to take a little electronics course, I had a electronics course I could take, but we lived out in the country,
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] and we didn't have all that fancy stuff to worry about, you know, we had our auto shop out there and our ag shop and,
[speaker001:] Yeah.
[speaker002:] and, you know, we had just about every thing that we needed but they don't have it anymore. There's a lot of things that they don't do in school anymore. M-, our oldest boy goes to Lubbock High down here and they go to school four and half days a week, so.
[speaker001:] Gee.
[speaker002:] That's pretty weird.
[speaker001:] Yeah it is, um, my children had a, uh, real culture shock, uh, when we lived in Plano, I guess, I don't know if you've heard about the Plano school district, but.
[speaker002:] No.
[speaker001:] they're re-, uh, they really stress academics there.
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] And, uh, God, if your child is not an honor student, well then, [LAUGHTER] you're, something wrong with you as a parent.
[speaker002:] Gee.
[speaker001:] And tha-, that's kind of the way they are there.
[speaker002:] Yeah.
[speaker001:] And, uh, when we moved back to Maryland, um, I moved to a, uh, a, Baltimore County which is a northern county in Maryland,
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] and it's basically a rural county, once you get above about the half way point.
[speaker002:] Yeah.
[speaker001:] And we lived, you know, in the northern part of the county. Uh, we went from a, uh, middle school in Texas that served fifty-five square blocks to a, uh, middle school in Maryland that served fifty-five square miles.
[speaker002:] Yeah.
[speaker001:] And it was just a complete culture shock,
[speaker002:] [LAUGHTER] I can imagine.
[speaker001:] because I mean, they, they're riding on the bus in the morning with, uh, other kids that, you know, are a sleep because they got up at three o'clock and were doing chores and,
[speaker002:] Yeah that would be quite a shock.
[speaker001:] they [LAUGHTER] you know, it's, and they had, uh, ag, they had an ag course, uh, I forget what it was called, uh, but it goes along the, the lines of industrial arts, but it's, agricultural.
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] And where they had to raise a small animal.
[speaker002:] Oh, like, Four H then.
[speaker001:] Had to learn how to drive a tractor.
[speaker002:] All right.
[speaker001:] They actually had to g-, take a driving test on the tractor, I mean, they just couldn't believe this and it was great. They loved it.
[speaker002:] All right.
[speaker001:] I mean they really enjoyed the courses, um, and it, you know, it made school fun for them again because prior to that school was just a big pain, a drain.
[speaker002:] Yeah, just something you do everyday.
[speaker001:] Yeah, and it was, you know. It was like, ki-, kind of like the way we feel about going to work [LAUGHTER].
[speaker002:] [LAUGHTER] Yeah, yeah, just something I have to do everyday.
[speaker001:] But, uh, up here they seem to have made it, uh, a lot of fun for them and they, they seem to really enjoy it.
[speaker002:] That's good, our oldest boy went into school politics and made vice [TV]...