I did quite a few school presentations over the past few weeks. One school had me do six presentations back-to-back. Whew! That’s the most I’ve done in one day before. I really enjoy talking to the kids, but I’ve discovered that speaking to 4th graders is a lot easier than speaking to 8th graders, at least when it comes to reading. It just seems like the older kids don’t read as much as the younger ones.

One hot topic of discussion with the librarians was Prop 100 in Arizona. Many were concerned that they might lose their jobs if it didn’t pass (it eventually passed). I have some mixed feelings about Prop 100. Basically, Arizona’s leaders decided that the main thing they could cut in their budget to save our economy was our schooling (i.e. libraries, arts, music, sports, etc). Say what? So they decided to raise taxes 1% for 3 years, which puts Arizona into the 8th highest tax bracket in the country (it was already above average in the first place). Two-thirds of the money will supposedly go to schools... unless our government happens to siphon it off to other things somehow. My complaint is not that the schools will get more money. My complaint is that they should already have been given top priority in the first place.

We already paid our taxes to support the schools, and because of mismanagement of funds (and other factors, which I'll mention below), our leaders got us into this bind. Now they’re twisting our arms to vote for Prop 100, which of course I voted for. And in three years from now, they’ll twist our arms again, because this is just a band-aid. It doesn’t solve the real problem.

I also have a bone to pick with Sun City, which I currently live in. Because Sun City is filled mostly with retired people, they’ve convinced the government to exclude them from having to pay taxes towards schools. I’m sure someone else’s taxes paid for their schooling, but they’re not willing to pay for other people’s schooling. Huh?

Another thing that could help solve this problem is if we fix this illegal alien situation we have in Arizona. It’s easy for outsiders to point the finger to us "bigoted Arizonans" when they don’t understand the full problem. Many illegal aliens who come across the Mexican border have a large amount of drugs on them for drug dealers to sell in America. It’s just part of their fare for crossing the border. Human trafficking and being forced into sweat shops are common fares as well. Our taxes go to pay for their medical bills, schooling, accidents, and any crimes they may commit. In return, many of them do not pay income taxes, which would help offset the resources they've exploited from the rest of us.

Although many of them are wonderful, hard working people, I still believe that anyone who is dishonest enough to enter a country illegally, who typically refuses to learn the native language, and who skirts paying certain taxes BUT is willing to reap the benefits of schooling, medical, and other services is a drain on that society. Any other country would deport them.