At Lakota and hundreds of other school districts all over Ohio school levies are on the fall ballot, and many people will find themselves torn between how they should vote. The trouble with teachers and public education in general is that most voters know at least one person close to them who works for the industry. Like any dedicated friend or loved one, it is typical to put blinders onto the reality of public education so not to betray those cherished members of our lives. This has allowed the radical elements of the teaching profession to capture the message of statism and sell it as value to the communities from which they behave as raw parasites. 
Because of the paralysis in judgment typical toward the teaching profession this has allowed complete falsehoods to be introduced into common language and social acceptance about public schools necessitating continuous higher taxes to substantiate levy requests. Newspaper reporters, television newscasts, and neighbor to neighbor discussions about public schools tend to always focus on the same union bullet points without ever exploring the harsh realities. Typically employees of such schools who speak in defense of their industry will say things like:
- “Due to lack of money things are not well.” “Of course there is waste and bad teachers, but they are the exception and not the norm, our children need our support.”
- “If the schools are not supported, the community we are so proud of will end up in deterioration.”
- “Because of the failed levies morale is low. The excellent teachers and administrators are jumping ship.”
- “With the latest cuts, elementary kids get one class of gym or music or art once a week on a rotating basis. They used to get each one once a week.”
Such comments go on to infinity from there with the commentators never contemplating openly the causes. There is a willingness to take the cause and effects of public education at the presented value allowing the radicals of government schools to get away with crimes of extortion driven by anti-trust violations. So often the reason is because most people have somebody close to them who works in the business and nobody wants to hurt the feelings of those people. This is how the crimes are committed, crimes of open looting of the public treasury for the solitary purpose of plunder by the state for the goal of statism. The truth about school levies and higher taxes are easy to see for those with the courage to see them. It has been proven that the best thing a community can do to maintain a healthy district is to vote down higher taxes, not cave into the emotional arguments provided by the employees of public education. (CLICK HERE for more detailed explanations) The reason is that higher taxes destroy property investment, the higher the taxes, the less investment into business and residences.
In my community of Lakota the result of a harsh economy is quite evident. On the surface of course everything looks nice, there are well-kept homes, the roads are paved well, there are lots of consumer options, the schools are rated well—everything appears to be in order—and in relation to other places in America it is. But if the façade is pulled back just a bit the reality can be seen for what it truly is. The pictures shown here are from Zillow and display with red markers property that is for sale. In the Lakota district there are quite a lot of homes for sale, some of which is normal. Some of it is driven by occupational changes, and changes to household income. But a lot of it is driven by taxes that are just simply too high. The more alarming indicator shown in the included pictures are those marked in blue. These are homes that are being foreclosed upon—meaning their owners could not keep up with their mortgage payments.
When first checking, it would be assumed that there would be a few of these, but the actual number is quite shocking. As shown, there are a lot of homeowners who have been barely hanging on through tough economic times who are finding themselves going through the disgrace of losing their properties to circumstance. Because I have made myself a spokesman against higher taxes, pro tax advocates see me as being in the way of their goals, and get very angry with me. This causes them to send all kinds of useful information out of anger. One such note was from a typical levy cheerleader who has placed their own personal neurosis into the care of their children out of guilt for a series of other mistakes they’ve made in their life. CLICK HERE TO REVIEW. That particular person said to me, “I pay $5400/year in taxes. How much do you pay? $2800? If you don’t want to live in an affluent community with good schools, then move!” What they were clearly attempting to do was make me feel like they had the upper hand because they pay a higher tax on a home that is over 300K in value. The thinking is flawed because what they miss is that many of the people suffering foreclosures are people in the most affluent neighborhoods in the Lakota district–their neighbors. Seen in the picture here, several foreclosures are occurring in the Four Bridges community and there are a few that are in the $1.1 million dollar range in other neighborhoods. Because Lakota is on a downward trend with enrollment as only well-to-do families can afford to live in such an affluent district, there are fewer children to attend the schools, leaving many homeowners regulated to selling off their homes to move to areas of the country where taxes are not such a burden. The only people who want to pay large taxes are the type of neurotic parents like that letter writer who are using the public schools to mask their deepest insecurities about their parenting ability. Once that same type of parent has children leaving the public school they will typically pack up and move to some other district in the United States to carry out their social psychosis—their innate desire to be busy-bodies.
The cost of allowing people like that to run a community into the ground uncontested is the unseen result of these Zillow pictures—too many people selling homes by choice flee the high taxes, or are forced out of their homes because they can’t keep up with the payment. The frightening aspect is what is not shown on Zillow are the many thousands of homeowners who are just barely hanging on, where one more increase in taxes will either push them into the red indications, or worse yet—the blue. When Lakota cheerleads the value that a school has on the community, they are speaking union bullet points that mean nothing. The value of a community is in its ability to make people want to live there. A school only attracts one kind of investor, people like the spoiled brat letter writer indicated above. Those types come and go within a ten year span during their children’s upbringing. They are not long term investors in a community unlike people such as myself who lived here before many of them were even born and will still be here long after they’ve bought up Florida condos and put those same children through college as empty-nesters. The way to ruin a community is to lure too many neurotic parents to a community to pay for homes they otherwise couldn’t afford if not for a strategic FHA loan from the government, or purchased with a variable interest rate that drive up their monthly payment quicker than the tax impositions of the public school. Or fools who think paying $5400 a year in taxes gives them emotional leverage in an argument. In discussions with their neighbors upon hearing such things nobody would reveal that they are struggling to pay their taxes, so they silently allow themselves to be foreclosed upon becoming one of the unfortunate blue indications on Zillow. Not wanting to admit failure to their friends, family, and neighbors who utter such half-baked endorsements of public education monopolies, they quietly purchase lottery tickets hoping for a winner right up to the last day when the bank comes to reclaim their property for default. Then and only then do they move and disappear from the earth and away from circles of Jabba the Hutt like socialites who think paying $5400 in personal property taxes is “good” for a community. Zillow has the truth. 
Being polite will not save a community from the destruction of parasites who think public education under the current funding model and anti-trust operation is sustainable. But silence will destroy it, the kind of silence seen on these Zillow pictures. Most people living near the blue indications have no idea that their neighbors are struggling because nobody takes the time to really get to know each other. One week everything looks fine from the outside, the neighbor is mowing their lawn, wearing an Ohio State t-shirt while doing some minor landscaping, and the children are playing outside. Nothing seems amiss. Then the next week there is a bank owned paper stuck to the garage and the family is nowhere to be seen. The home is empty overnight and an uncomfortable sensation engulfs the entire neighborhood as though a death just took place. 
In a lot of ways one did, a bit of the life that makes up a community died—the hopes and dreams of property ownership that was robbed from them by changes in finance. Among those changes are the difficulties in keeping up with their taxes among all the other concerns they have in their lives. Paying $3000 to $6000 a year in taxes just to send a bunch of spoiled brat kids raised by neurotic parents to a free education starts to wear on the mind when it is realized that having that money for personal needs is much greater. Upon that realization, homes go up for sale or are lost because the admission that such properties cannot be afforded comes too late in the game. Luckily for the Lakota district the residents have managed to fight off the corrosive public school since 2005. It can only be imagined how many new blue indications will show up on Zillow if Lakota manages to raise taxes the way they desire. But one thing is for sure, it will be a big number, and that is not conducive to a thriving community. The value of a school district does not come from the school, the teachers, or the buildings themselves, but from the people who invest their money, and are motivated to continue due to financial incentive. Higher taxes are not an incentive, they are detriments—ones that have a direct relationship to the blue indications on Zillow.
Rich Hoffman
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The Overmanwarrior 