I’m actually writing this blog post from New Zealand. My husband and I are taking a long-saved-for trip down under to hike the Milford Trail. This process has let me do some comparison between U.S. culture and that of Australia and New Zealand—and it has been great fun. But as we come to the end of our adventure, we’re grateful to be coming home. While I’ve really enjoyed every country I’ve visited so far, including Japan, England, Scotland, Greece, Turkey, Italy, and Croatia, there is simply no place like home. We have it all. Something beautiful in every foreign country always reminds me of someplace back home in the U.S. But, this is no travelogue so I’ll get to the point. It’s about what we get for our educational tax dollars in the United States. And, I encourage you to take the data for your local state and county and write a similar article and post it on your school’s website and send your local reporters a copy as well—and if you have a blog, post it there too.

We all complain about the taxes we pay—and I’m no exception. But one aspect of our tax allocation should make us proud when we take a hard look at what it does for us. I’ll use my own personal local statistics as an actual example:

• I reside in Arizona and we average about $6000 per year per student for education (which is just about the lowest in all 50 states, by the way).
• I have raised four children so at 13 years each the cost of their education would be approximately $312,000. The average of all taxes paid on an owner occupied home in my county last year was $1,433 per year.
• If all of my residential tax bill went to public education, which is actually only about 75%, it would take approximately 217 years to pay off my children’ education.

Now, I don’t know about you, but that means I’m certainly getting my money’s worth as a parent. And that doesn’t even factor in the value I get as a grandparent of eight. Even those without children need to recognize what it means to them to have a society of educated and productive tax payers in our nation. A successful educational system is essential to modern society.

Owner occupied housing taxes by county in 792 counties in the United States as a percent of home value range from a low of .13% to 2.89%.  In my own example, Maricopa County, Arizona, the largest metropolitan area in my state the average is .70%.  Monroe County, New York is the highest at 2.89%.  So, do the math and then let your publics know what a great value their educational tax dollars are.

And, on another note, this trip “down under” gave me a real wake-up call since everyone we talked to on our trek through the outback (from the UK, New Zealand, Israel, or Australia) was paying up to 20% more in taxes per year (overall) than we pay in the U.S. That doesn’t even count the fact that they are paying an equivalent of $8 per gallon for gas! So, like Springsteen, I’m grateful to be born and living in the good ol’ USA, regardless of our current economic challenges as a nation.