Does this sound fair to you?  Rather than tax an entire state for a new highway, how about installing a toll booth on that highway and let those that use the highway pay for it?  Why burden non-drivers with the cost of a highway they don't use?  Why not really burden those who use it a lot?  Well, that is what is called a "user tax" and that could be one of the answers to the education money crunch that we are about to enter. 

 
I have said it before and I'll say it again, school should NOT be free!  Parents are more than willing to pay a babysitter $12 an hour so that they can go out and be social, they should be willing to pay to send their child off to a learning environment.  They pay for pre-school and they pay for college so why should they hesitate to pay for the 13 years between pre-school and college?  (I am well aware that there are some families that make so little money that they would not be able to pay but it is certainly not a large number) 

HOW MUCH SHOULD THEY PAY?
Are you ready for a bargain?  How does this sound?  $1 per hour.  One dollar per hour.  One hundred cents per hour!  There are 180 days in a school year.  There are roughly 7 hours in a school day.  That would amount to $1260 a year payable directly to the school or school district.  I cannot tell what that would do for the educational system.  I was just in Maryland where the governor is asking all departments (including education) to slash their budgets by one third!  What do you think would happen if a school district tried to charge kids for school?  Would the parents revolt? If a school district publically stated "We are going to charge you $1 per hour for school" would the parents really revolt?

Another benefit of making parents pay for school is that they would learn to appreciate it.  No one ever appreciates something that is given to them for free.  I realize that our tax dollars are paying for schools so some may not view it as free but in my opinion, most people do not think of taxes as a payment for school.  Once families are paying for school maybe they would not be so disinterested in their child's education.