All benefit from paying taxes for schools

I take issue with a recent letter suggesting that since they don’t use the schools, seniors shouldn’t have to pay full taxes to support them. If you draw this reasoning to its logical extension, perhaps my taxes shouldn’t go toward paying for the senior center since I don’t use it. I don’t play golf and my kids don’t use the pool anymore, so my taxes shouldn’t support the park district. I’m sure many in our village don’t use the library — why are we all taxed for that?

It is convenient that the author had his epiphany about a senior tax opt-out after his kids went through the system that all of his neighbors paid for. I’ll remind him too that one of the primary reasons his house is worth whatever it is worth is because of the above-average schools in this area. Although he is not using the school system, he is directly benefiting from its quality.

I think the author of that letter has forgotten what the definition of community really is. Although we all have different needs, we share a common bond living near each other and supporting each other through the village services. We pay to protect each others’ homes from fire or other dangers. We pay for each others’ roads although we don’t drive on all of them. And we pay for each others’ schools so that one day when we sell our homes, the next generation of families will have the same benefits that we enjoyed when our kids were young.

Paul Snead

Mount Prospect