citizen13's Point of Skew

We all are bombarded on a regular basis of problems with the Memphis and Shelby County school systems. We are regularly threatened with property tax increases to pay for the costs of educating our children. I have no problem with paying my fair share of educating our children. I have raised three children of my own and reaped the benefits of our school system.

One of the problems, as I see it, is that people want to live near, and work in Memphis, yet actually living within the city limits is not exactly desirable. Those of us within the city limits basically pay twice the taxes of those who live in the county. As a result there is a high demand for housing outside the city limits. You can afford a better house if your money isn't all spent on taxes. Naturally this causes a flight from the city, where crime is definitely a problem, to the safety of the suburbs. I find no fault with the desire of safety and a better home.

It only makes sense that housing will be built were there is a demand, and where builders can get a better price for their product. I find no fault with builders making sound business decisions.

The problem comes when housing is built with little or no thought given to the impact on the school system of the community. Where will the children in the new housing go to school. It would seem that for every new home or apartment built, either a fee should be paid to the local government to cover the cost of building a school for the projected amount of children that will be brought into the area, or the builders should actually have to build the schools themselves. The latter option would seem to be the most cost effective, eliminating the bureaucracy. If local government didn't have to deal with where to put the children, then maybe they could concentrate on educating them, and our taxes wouldn't have to go up so consistently. The idea is simple, if you build homes, you must also build schools.