RE: Schools' Role in Workforce Preparation

Too many in the business world want something for nothing. They would like to reap for private profit the social benefits of a well-educated labor force without paying the social costs necessary. On the issue of financing all the changes the comprehensive plan calls for, I think we need to look at the question of a split-roll property tax in which commercial and industrial properties are taxed at a higher rate -- since they produce a rising income for their owners -- than is residential property whose rising "valuation" is not realizable by its owners. Such a change would mean that education would not have to go, hat in hand, to business and industry as mendicants or beggars hoping for scraps from the table to make up for several decades of diminished financing and unprovided infrastructure. Instead, business and industry would be paying its fare share of the costs for the quality education from which it benefits.