There is no doubt about it, our schools need money.  Teachers deserve better salaries, we should update our school supplies and classrooms need to be brought into the 21st century.  As the mother of two students in San Leandro public schools, I’m well aware of what good more money could do.  The question, however, is who should pay for it.  The San Leandro School District has decided that the burden should fall on the poor.  I disagree.

The parcel tax on the ballot is not only an extension of the current parcel tax, but a doubling of it.  It’s a fix sum of $78 per parcel.  This means that a family of six living in an 800-sq ft cottage will pay the same than a millionaire investor with a mini-mansion in Bay O’Vista.  This is unconscionable.

Many of my neighbors are immigrants who worked extremely hard at minimum wage jobs for years, living in cramped conditions, multiple families to a rental, in order to save and afford to buy a house.   It is just immoral to ask them to work a full day in order to pay for this tax, while a lawyer must only work 15 minutes to do the same.  It is particular immoral to do so in a mail-in election, where most of the people voting are likely to be those least affected by the tax (seniors can get an exemption from paying it).

We have to stop stealing from the poor to fund the services of the upper middle classes.  Voting no in this tax is a start.