Yesterday, I had the chance to preach in my home congregation on the subject of “giving unto Caesar” and “giving unto God.” This was an interesting sermon for me to prepare, because the passage lead me in a different direction than what I might have expected (though, unsurprisingly, Jacques Ellul made his way in there from the beginning). Here’s the text!

introduction

In 1984, representatives from all over our denomination gathered in Independence, Missouri, for a World Conference. As sometimes happens at these World Conferences, the president of our denomination presented an “inspired document” for those representatives to consider adding to our book of Doctrine and Covenants, to be recognized and preserved as scripture for future generations.

Every time kiddo’s school does a fundraiser, I think about how much of a shame it is that there isn’t some system for automatically collecting funds from the local community to make sure schools have enough money to operate. It seems like there ought to be something there.

I’m sure this is more complicated than I appreciate, but what stands out to me is that every time I watch the Kentucky Derby, I’m overwhelmed by what a display of wealth it is. That’s not what I see when I look at public schools.

I generally like my local paper, but I’m annoyed by all of the feel-good “someone won big at the lottery!” stories they publish. Lotteries are regressive taxes, and celebrating winners helps conceal that fact.

This is apparently the second August in a row I’ve complained on here that I’d much rather pay higher taxes than deal with another school fundraiser.

Kiddo’s school is contracting with a company called Booster to raise $78,000 for new technology for the school. U.S. schools are, of course, underfunded, and I’m generally in favor of getting more money into their bank accounts. I have a number of concerns about this fundraiser, though, and it’s making me grumpy.

what “technology”?

I have a PhD in educational technology, which means two things in this context. First, I’m very aware of the fundamental—and often useful—role that technology plays in learning, so I’m not opposed to updating the tech in kiddo’s school. Second, and in contrast, I’ve spent a fair amount of time reading critiques of educational technology. Consider this observation from Larry Cuban’s 2003 book Oversold and Underused, which is describing attitudes toward educational technology in the 1990s:

I have been furious with Intuit since ProPublica did their great reporting on this, but I’ve continued to use TurboTax because the system is broken. Very excited for this news, and I appreciate Doctorow’s passionnate take.

Speaking personally, I’d be happy to pay extra taxes to better support our local schools.

It is the first day of kiddo’s school’s fundraiser, and I would much rather pay higher taxes than have to go through any of this. Boggles my mind that not everyone feels this way.

Tremendously worrying stuff. Taxes are the price we pay for democratic society.

Glad to hear this—and glad my state rep seems to me a voice of reason here.

The last thing we need is a more regressive taxation system.