# What happens if nobody enforces the law? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 31, 2012, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-nobody-enforces-the-law/623655 "2012-05-31T14:39:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![chizzuk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e36b37/32.png) [@chizzuk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chizzuk)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2012, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-nobody-enforces-the-law/623655/61 "2012-06-03T02:28:45Z")
> [@Martin\_Hyde](#): > > Yeah, I’ll note **Elendil’s Heir** is from Ohio which IMO has a horrific school system. Now, I’m not saying Ohio has bad schools–in fact there are many school districts in Ohio that are amazing and probably some of the best districts in the country (several that surround Columbus are extremely nice.) No, what I mean is that at the State level I think States like Ohio really do a lot to destroy realistic chances of “equality of opportunity.” > > In Ohio, every little town can have its own school district if it wants. So what happens is big cities like Columbus have huge school districts with tons of students. However, a lot of the people who live inside the actual Columbus tax district are poor, so Columbus city schools are quite simply undesired. Then you have richer people congregate to small towns that all have their own school districts–cities like Dublin, Upper Arlington, Bexley, Hilliard etc. These towns have ridiculously high municipal income tax and property tax millages, but they have extremely good schools. The general wealth of these communities by itself makes property more expensive, then the desirability of the local school systems creates increased demand for housing in those districts. What you get is ever-increasing property tax rates that are simply unaffordable to anyone but the wealthy. > > So yeah, it’s great if you’re upper middle class and can afford to live on those cities, it really, really sucks if you don’t. > > I’m not nearly as familiar with Minnesota’s system, but states that I think “get it right” tend to do exactly what you’re talking about. What I’ve seen in States where I think it is done “correctly” is you have the primary school administrative unit at the county level. Each county has its own school board, with some level of funding provided by county taxes. However, a lot of the funding also comes from the State. Most importantly, the State will have “equalization” statutes in place. What this means is each year the State looks at all the county school districts, their spending per pupil and average teacher pay. They get the average, and any school district that is 10% or more below the average in spending per pupil or teacher pay, receives lots more State money than the schools that are at average or higher than average. > > Now, in systems like this you can still have local municipal levies that go towards specific projects, like High School construction etc. So in States like this I’m familiar with, yeah, even within counties the richer cities will have the nicest schools because those municipalities can take it upon themselves to approve special levies for construction of better schools. But then like you say, they have an open enrollment policy…the ones I’m familiar with don’t allow any enrollment in the State, but do allow open enrollment anywhere in the county. What you end up having is 1-2 really high quality High Schools in the county, typically in the richer neighborhoods, and the parents who really care about their kids education take the necessary arrangements to get them to school every morning (since busing may not be available for kids who aren’t in that school’s area by default.) But even though there is still some inequality, the fact that little cities can’t all develop their own school districts, and the State forces some degree of county-to-county equality really levels the playing field in my opinion. Especially in that it gives high achieving poor kids who live in bad neighborhoods a good option to get out of that environment and have a much better shot at a good education, enrollment in college and etc. Not just Ohio. I was just offered a job with LAUSD and they gave me a nice little map of the district to give me an idea of where I could live and what my commute would be like. LAUSD is a huge district with a perfect little hole right in the middle where Beverly Hills is. There’s a similar hole on the west side for Santa Monica, which is surrounded on 3 sides by LAUSD (the fourth side being the ocean). And Culver City has its own inlet. They might as well have titled the map “SoCal socioeconomic disparity.” ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2012, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-nobody-enforces-the-law/623655/62 "2012-06-03T03:16:06Z")
> [@BlinkingDuck](#): > > WTF?! > > What is your state income tax? I pay about that if you include property and state income taxes. If your state income tax is high as well then you need to move man! IIRC the income tax rates are between 1.5 and 9% or so depending on income. And the sales tax is 7%. Welcome to New Jersey. ---
**Author:** ![zoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zoid/32/336_2.png) [@zoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoid)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2012, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-nobody-enforces-the-law/623655/63 "2012-06-03T03:18:30Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > I wonder if those that don’t see much of a problem with this are in states in which property taxes are low. I know from past threads that some pay a few hundred dollars a year. My last house I paid about $10,000 a year. My girlfriend currently pays $16,000 per year. My ex-inlaws were paying $12,000. And most of that goes to the school budget. These are middle class suburban towns, not affluent at all. Having students attend school illegally is looked at seriously around here. > > ETA in fairness my old house was in a town with a high median income but that was because there were some ultra wealthy living in a rural area in which most were middle to lower middle class. > [@BlinkingDuck](#): > > WTF?! > > What is your state income tax? I pay about that if you include property and state income taxes. If your state income tax is high as well then you need to move man! That’s cheap in some areas of Chicagoland. I’d love to have that bill. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2012, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-nobody-enforces-the-law/623655/64 "2012-06-03T03:34:45Z")
> [@zoid](#): > > That’s cheap in some areas of Chicagoland. I’d love to have that bill. The numbers I quoted were from three different counties. All from middle class areas. They are by no means the highest rates in the state. New Jersey has the highest property tax rates in the country. That is not really up for debate. New York has three of the top 5 taxed counties in the country. NJ has the other 2. But New York is big and has a lot of area with low taxes. There are parts of the country that has higher taxes than parts of NJ but as a state NJ wins. > **[Lou Greenwald says New Jersey's property taxes are highest in country](https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2012/may/10/lou-greenwald/lou-greenwald-says-new-jerseys-property-taxes-are-/)** > > New Jersey often ranks high on lists in categories ranging from beach quality to education. Unfortunately, according to And add to that one of the highest state income tax rates and one of the highest sales taxes. Careful what you wish for. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-nobody-enforces-the-law/623655.md?page=3)