Dear Editor,

Over the years I’ve written a few letters for publication which addressed the thorny and never-ending debate about funding for this state’s public school system.

I’ve voted for politicians who promised to end the local school property tax scheme once and for all, but every one of them failed to produce anything close to a satisfactory resolution to the perennial problem.

I threw-in the towel several years ago, believing nothing was going to change as long as Harrisburg was content with a system that put the burden of local school funding primarily on the backs of property owners. Then I read Ed Socha’s column about school funding in the March 24 edition. So, once again I’m putting in my two cents.

The manner in which Pennsylvania school districts acquire local school funding is nothing less than state-sanctioned extortion.

The system is discriminatory and unconscionable because the only people being taxed directly by school districts are property owners, who must pay what the school districts demand or risk losing their property. Everyone else gets a pass.

If the state is serious about making public school funding “fair,” “equitable” and “reliable,” it must first abolish the existing local school property tax system. It must remove the yoke from the shoulders of the only ones who’ve been carrying the water for their local school districts.

Everyone, not just property owners, must contribute and pay their fair share, regardless of age, financial situation or station in life. How is this accomplished?

While not everyone owns a piece of taxable property, everyone must eat and everyone must wear clothing. Start taxing, at 6%, all food and all clothing across the board at the state level. Everyone must pay; no one gets a pass.

Dedicate those new taxes exclusively to the funding of public education throughout the Commonwealth and distribute the taxes “equitably” among the state’s 500 public school districts.

Then — and only then — will we see “fair,” “equitable” and “reliable” funding of our public schools.

L. Ernie Foucault

Kresgeville