High Home Values Linked to Corporal Punishment?

It may seem far-fetched, but could paddling students correlate to a healthier real estate market? Or is Texas simply gaining a new reputation as the Lone Swat State?

Parents and school board members in Temple, Texas recently resurrected corporal punishment -- better known as spanking -- in the Temple public schools. Temple is a fast-growing community of 60,000 (just north of Austin and off I-35) that is enjoying a healthy real estate market and was virtually untouched by the recession.

As a growing bioscience incubator in transition from ranching and farming, the city is also known as home to the Scott & White Hospital, Wilsonart Laminate, and the McLane Co. founded by billionaire Robert Drayton McLane. (He also owns the Houston Astros and recently sold the huge grocery distributor to Wal-Mart.)

The town actually asked the school district to revive corporal punishment to quell unruly students --and higher real estate values just seemed to come as part of the deal.

All kidding aside, the latest pediatric research does not in any way support Temple's public-school policy. A recent study done by researchers at Tulane University determined that children who are spanked from a young age are more like to become "aggressive, destructive and mean" as they get older. Clearly some corners of the country haven't gotten the message.