Where do our tax dollars go?
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In My Humble Opinion
Jodi McDade
Happy tax new year! Here we are at the beginning of February, and we should have received our W-2s from our employers, 1099s from other income, and are now ready to find out how much we owe our federal and state governments for the privilege of living in the good old U.S.A. I understand the need for some of the taxes, but I am NOT in favor of what my tax money is being spent on.
When I was looking up information on what our tax dollars were spent on the first thing listed in many of the articles was EDUCATION! I want a refund! I understand my money being spent to fund our military, maintain our federal highways, employ NECESSARY government employees, protect our borders from illegal entry of goods and people, and law enforcement.
At the state level, I don’t mind some of my tax dollars being spent on education, but NOT on the federal level. As with all government services, the best place for education funding is at the local level.
I know I am beating a dead horse about my opinion of our education system – but almost all the problems originate with the U.S. Department of Education that was not even created until 1979 under President Jimmy Carter.
Originally, education was at the very local level of churches and parents. The one-room school house came along, but that was operated at the community level. As our population grew and we became more industrialized, the desire for education increased, as well.
Most of our young people probably don’t know that children were not always required to attend school. Many children only attended when they were not needed on the family farm to bring in the crops that they relied on. The first state to mandate school attendance was Massachusetts in 1852.
By 1918, all states required school attendance. If you look back at what was happening in our country about that time, you will see a parallel with the increase in Progressive/Socialist views.
If the individual states controlled the education systems, it was difficult to promote the changes that these new “intelligence-minded” people wanted to put in place. Religious views had to be removed, parental involvement needed to be disrupted, and the curriculum and teaching methods needed to be changed.
After desegregation (the best excuse for federal takeover), the federal government really started moving ahead at breakneck speed. They were able to start lowering the standards in all schools because of the minority students being judged as having “lower intelligence” and unable to meet the standards that were supposedly higher in white schools. But were they really higher? Or was that just an excuse, too?
And now we have the U.S. Department of Education in total control of education down to the local level with our federal tax dollars AND local taxes supporting education systems and mandating the structure, curriculum and teaching methods. They control how and what teachers are taught, what requirements teachers must meet and the unions/associations that control the teachers.
The goal is for all students to be taught the exact same things, by the exact same method, by teachers who have also been indoctrinated in the ways of the progressive movement of the U.S. Department of Education. The takeover has been coming since 1852, and it is almost complete.
My major complaint (which is part of the indoctrination of Common Core – to make all children “common”) is the way our children are being taught they are either victims or oppressors based on their race and/or ethnicity. That should never be an agenda within the educational system.
So, back to why do we pay taxes for things that weren’t meant to be the responsibilities of the government? As I have been writing, I saw reports of a county government spending $2 million over two years for 22,000 tents and 69,000 tarps for the homeless in their area. Do you think this is the responsibility of the taxpayers there?
And I am seeing reports of illegal immigrants who have been housed in $500 per night hotel rooms in New York City (at government expense) who are refusing to leave – to be replaced by other illegal immigrants. They are still going to be housed at government expense, but just in a refugee center. Talk about ungrateful!
I’m waiting on one of my 1099s so I can have my taxes done. I don’t mind paying my fair share, but I’d really like to know where my fair share is going. How about you?