The burden of taxes was a central catalyst for the American Revolution. One would think that governmental leaders would be especially careful whenever the subject of taxes and fairness could possibly collide. You would be wrong. The topic this week is one that is near and dear to my heart. People ask me to put forth some of my ideas from my unpublished work: The Evolution of Democracy: The Book of Multiple Ideas and Predictions.
The reason why I haven't is many. One, why would any publisher print a book whose ideas are already known? Secondly, there are many crooked people out there. Some would use my ideas and claim them as their own. With that said, I will put forth this minor concept to make our union a more perfect state.
"No Taxation Without Representation!"
In every state in our union, governmental leaders use the lie of separation of church and state to keep from funding Catholic schools. Catholics pay state and local taxes for public education to which they never use because they make the sacrifice to also pay for their children's education in Catholic schools. Now, let us really look at the difference.
In most states, Catholic educators must pass the same state credentials for teaching as public school teachers. They will teach basically the same curriculum. Of course, their salary and benefits will be less then public school teachers.
Generally, the only difference is Catholic schools are more liberal arts while public schools have more options. This is due to their much larger budgets. I will get into that in a moment. So, in our school buildings to which we built and paid without public assistance, our teachers educate the same math, history, and so on as in any public school. The only difference which is the reason why we have a school system, is because in one class, we have a cross and we teach our religion. That is it!
This is pure bullshit! Catholics are treated as second class citizens. When we apply for a job, the application shows that we attended St. Mary's or St. Joseph's. It is easy to deny us. In addition, our names stand out. You never see an Italian doing the anchor news anywhere in America as well as Poles and other European ethnics. The Jewish religious leaders noticed this discrimination in the US. Many Jews changed their names to colors like Silver, Green, Black and Gold. Sometimes, they employed the ending of "Man" like Silverman. Back to the discriminations of Catholics. A recent example was the NCAA basketball tournament. The opening ceremony had a college student from the major schools of higher education throughout the state of Indiana. Did they have them all? No! They did not invite Norte Dame. They hate us and that school because it is the best in college football and it gores them. Whenever there is a drive to help local schools with funding, the group collects from everybody. However, they never share the donations to Catholic schools. Sometimes, I wish that I had the means to reach some very influential people. The following list all received Catholic education, but I never hear of them doing something in return. They may have, but I don't know. Kareem Jabber, Lebron James, Isaiah Thomas all attended Catholic high school and unlike many other successful black athletes, they can speak clearly and intelligently. They speak out for black causes to which I can understand, but Catholics were mistreated long before the first African set foot in America. Irish immigrants were greeted with signs, "Irish need not apply." Back to this group and many, many others. Where is your gratitude and help?
I could go on and on. My book devotes a whole chapter to the subject. Let me finish with a few last thoughts. Public school leaders never give credit to the work of our religious nuns who laid the groundwork for our school system. We wear uniforms or the same color clothes. This is for equality in the classroom. The nuns practiced discipline. They were made to feel guilty for using a ruler on someone's knuckles. Let me tell you this. Whomever that kid was, he got it worse when he got home. If parents learned that their child could cause a nun to be this upset, that kid was a walking dead man. Our students show respect for their teachers and schools. Maybe this clouds some bad examples, but overall, our kids learn at their grade level. Public schools cannot say the same thing. We do it with one-third less money and with limited facilities. Catholic schools are closing because parents can no longer afford the extra costs of paying taxes and then, a tuition to school. We need and deserve help! Enough already!
We deserve school funding to pay our teachers. We will pay the salary of the religious class. We will continue to cover the costs to maintain our buildings and grounds, but states must fund the cost for our teachers. We are one-forth of the population that is taxed, but does not receive any of the fruits of our labor. We are sick and tired of this discrimination.
"No Taxation Without Representation!"
