Shortchanging our schools:

Undertaxed properties plague some of Kentucky’s poorest districts.

 

Story from the Lexington Herald-Leader about undertaxed properties hurting Kentucky's poorest districts with a special focus on Breathitt County.

 

Didn't realize how the link with disability benefits contributes to the revenue short fall.

 

Interesting quotes from the story:

 

 

"The gaps between Kentucky's school districts have widened again, not just on their ability to support their local schools but also on their willingness to support them,' Hammond said. "I hate to describe it like this, I hate to use this word, but it's really a welfare mentality. People just don't want to pay anything for their schools. They figure someone else will send them the money, so they don't have to do anything.'

 

 

Dependence on outsiders is nothing new in Breathitt County. It has a "mailbox economy' based on government checks. Sixty-one percent of the county's personal income consists of public assistance payments rather than salaries and wages from jobs. The collapse of Eastern Kentucky's coal industry in recent years only aggravated this.

 

 

As it happens, several thousand people in the county get disability benefits, and 14 percent of the population is 65 or older. So a whopping 28 percent of the value of residential property — $54 million — is shielded from taxation by those exemptions, with the disability exemption being more common. By comparison, only 7 percent of the value of residential property across Kentucky is covered by those exemptions.

 

 

Disability checks are so sought-after in Breathitt that school officials say parents sometimes keep children home for fear that attending class could make them ineligible for benefits.

I don't understand how keeping your kds home from school affects benefits.

 

Regardless, I believe the article. Very sad.

Pretty much a given you can't throw money at the education problem. It starts with the parents. Even in the worst of places, whether rural KY or inner city, a parent who values education will make sure the kids will get educated.Tax revenues won't change the attitude in above example.

When 61% of the personal income of the county comes from public assistance, that is a tragedy. What a sad state of affairs. Feel bad for those kids.

Looks like you have conflicting government programs. On one side you have a problem of properly educating the youth of a community vs. trying to help those who are (truly) in need of assistance. Maybe those in government who oversee those receiving government assistance need to do a better job of weeding out the deadbeats.