Font ResizeWe have 72 self-governed little kingdoms, each with its own plethora of egos and ideas of how things should be done.
You have the "because that's the way it's always been," adviser, the "we don't like furuhners" court jester, and "we don't need change here" duke, all within each of those kingdoms.
So one has a 250-foot moat between that castle and the next, because the king there likes to swim.
The next one will have a 2 1/2-foot moat, because the king is afraid of water.
Next door the required 65-foot fence is only 6 feet 5 inches because the numbers in the building code book got smeared when the contractor spilled grog on it.
Now the ruling kingdom over all these wrote a book with guidelines meant to be followed by the sub-kingdoms. But because each has sort of a different dialect it pretty much comes down to how each wants to read it.
And so you have it, the map of York County.
Now within the walls of those 72 kingdoms are 17 fiefdoms, which teach the children. If you're lucky enough to own a plot of land anywhere within these 17 fiefdoms, you're going to be taxed according to what leaders want. Some will want a swimming moat squad, others a jousting team, still others a ladies-in-waiting cheering squad. Each will need its own trainers, facilities, fields and towel
Someone in another place decides there's not enough water to keep the fields pristine and skinned-knee proof, so they ship in a rainmaker at $60,000 to water those, as well as the training ground where the knights have potato sack races.
Little by little, the huts on the little plots of land get turned back over to the kingdom, because the extremely hard-working townspeople can no longer afford to pay taxes on all the fiefdoms' "necessities." Those who are the longest working, the elderly, have their choice of where to live taken from them. They're forced out of their huts and thrown into a fenced retirement community since they can't work anymore, so who needs them? Young'uns bring more revenue. Progress, you know.
Some like green rolling hills, but hills don't pay the bills, so castle builders from other lands come in and slap up condo castles. The unused lands keep getting smaller and smaller. Soon, farmland is gone, so food has to be shipped in from another land. Prices for mutton and meal skyrocket.
That's the picture of York County school districts, each its own little taxation machine, stripping the townspeople to the bone, each to make its fiefdom outdo the next.
If all the little fiefdoms joined together to make a bigger, finer one, there'd be less confusion and fewer rulers. All the diversity could work together to make clear, concise, logical improvements.
The children who will be going to school in those new homes put a new burden on the school districts, and the taxes from that home will not cover the cost of educating one child, much less more than one.
Consider what it would be like if the school districts would consolidate to form one school district. Education would be more consistent, with all schools receiving prorated money from another source other than district school taxes.
Some of the highest taxes are in the city, which is where some of the poorest are in the entire county. Logical? Nuh-uh. In some of the more affluent districts, they're pitching massive amounts of money for sports fields and teams, while subjects like art and gym are cut. Logic took a vacation there. As I said before, and actually read where one school district wants $60,000-plus in their budget to irrigate a soccer field. Are you kidding me?
Why are hard-working people, especially the elderly who have worked really hard all their lives, survived wars and the depression, having these "great ideas" stuffed down their throats, or pockets. Why should they have the constant worry of figuring out how to hold onto their home they've lived in forever? Why do they have to choose between taxes to keep their homes, or food or medication? It just blows the mind.
A friend of mine who just moved here from Baltimore said that when schools close down there for snow, there's one announcement because of the consolidation of the school districts. Here, she remarked, you have to sit through 400 closings of the schools to find out about your own. And heaven help you if you sneeze or leave the room when your school district makes an announcement.
One large school district could mean more equitable allocation of funds. Think of the savings in personnel costs. Can you imagine what the savings would be if there were one superintendent with sub-directors? Check out the salaries of your district's superintendent and other district managers. If teacher salaries were more equitable, wouldn't the quality be the same?
One school district, or fiefdom, with equitable revenue from sources other than the current lopsided system could put all the county kids on more equal grounds, figuratively and non-figuratively.
And, all those "knights of the roundtable" discussions could be used to decide about the educational needs of our kids -- all of them.
Barbara Murphy is a grandmother and a Mary Kay consultant. She lives in York Township.
