What's In It For ME?

Publicly Funded Education - What's In It For ME?
A quality local school district does more than provide an education to the young people of this community.  It can also increase your property values.  According to the article House Prices and the Quality of Schools, the authors found that when other characteristics are held constant, home values were higher where there was perceived to be a better school.  Studies were done in neighborhoods where the neighborhood was split into multiple school districts.  Similar home prices in the same neighborhood dropped as much as $12,000 compared to those homes located in a higher quality school district.   Home values were higher in school districts with higher expenditures per student.  The article states "the evidence is that home owners do value school districts that spend more per pupil."  It goes on to say "when extra resources are used wisely, they can enhance the quality of education and thereby contribute to higher house prices." 
Another study by the Heartland Institute found that "Local property tax funding of education gives all of a community's residents, not only the parents of school-aged children, an incentive to monitor the local public schools and see that they provide a good education. Homeowners in districts with successful schools are rewarded with rising property values, whereas residents in districts with unsuccessful schools experience falling property values.

Each resident has an individual incentive to either support the status quo if it is producing good results, or work for change if it is not. Local property tax funding thus gives school personnel an incentive to provide high quality and efficient schools. School districts also must compete with one another or risk losing students, as well as tax dollars, to better-performing districts. "

A quality local school district provides value to every homeowner in the district.  In exchange, homeowners provide funding for the school.  The school then uses those funds wisely to sustain that level of quality and increase homeowner's value. 

Preserving our school.  Preserving our community.