Spending the State Tax Rebates

My wife and I received our $64 state tax rebate check. I took it to our bank, cashed it, spent the money on dinner and a movie, and I am not the least bit ashamed.

I believe that this $64, like other consumer expenditures, helps the economy grow. When businesses and their employees prosper, then society as a whole reaps the rewards.

The Times editorial “How to Help Your School” (Nov. 22) states that California’s public schools are entitled to this money. I wonder what the schools are doing with the $25 billion (out of a budget of $40 billion) that California taxpayers are giving them already.

The schools evidently have an excess of administrators and other bureaucratic personnel who do little to educate our children. And while teachers certainly mean well, they have been trained mainly on how to teach, not what to teach.

California students, and those all across America, are ignorant of geography and foreign languages, and often do not even learn how to read and write. Our kids are not being trained to function in an increasingly complex world.

For these reasons, I don’t believe the schools deserve our $64 tax rebate. Until there are fundamental changes in teacher training and school curriculum, it would only be good money thrown after bad.

What we need instead are tuition tax credits so more parents can get their kids out of these failing schools. This would allow more choice in education, an alternative to the current government monopoly.

I urge all Californians to keep and spend their state tax rebate checks!

TED BROWN

Los Angeles