There's A Better Way To Fund Public School Construction
By Jersey City Mayor Bret Schundler
The New Jersey Legislature is about to borrow $12 billion and practically double the State's debt. If this happens, the State's soaring bonded-indebtedness under Governor Whitman will have set up a slam dunk issue for the Democrats in the next state election.
The ostensible justification for this massive borrowing is the need to build additional public schools. But we can build new facilities and decrease school over-crowding in New Jersey without any State bonding. All we need to do is accelerate the
creation of charter public schools in over-crowded school districts, and have them lease space in municipally constructed facilities. And by the way, this would not require any new state legislation or appropriation.
Charter public schools have a principal and teachers but relatively few administrators and office personnel. They use the payroll savings that result to fund their space costs. Instead of needing both operating dollars and capital dollars, they fund both
operating costs and space costs out of their operating budgets alone.
If the New Jersey Legislature unnecessarily borrows billions of dollars for public school construction, it will have no money left over to help local school districts operate these new public schools. The cost of staffing these facilities
will cause property taxes in New Jersey to soar!
But if the State accelerates the creation of charter public schools, new facilities will get built and over-crowding will decline without the State having to spend $12 billion for construction. The State will be able to use its dollars to help pay the
cost of staffing these new facilities. Property taxpayers will save!
I founded a charter school in Jersey City. I then stepped down from its Board and had the City build a Community Education and Recreation Center, which is now leased to the charter
school as a day-time tenant. The charter school is obtaining superior educational results. It is doing so for only 90% of the operating dollars other public schools in Jersey City receive, and it has never received one dollar for capital construction purposes. Its lease payments cover the City's construction debt costs, so the City has now gained a beautiful community center that cost its property taxpayers nothing but is freely available to residents during non-school hours. Once the City's bonds are
paid off, its continuing rental income will be useable to fund local tutoring and recreation programs without any property tax cost to local residents whatsoever.
I would like to add that the City was able to build the community center for half of what it would have cost the school district to build the very same building. This is because school construction regulations unnecessarily drive up costs.
In Jersey City, we have come up with a more efficient way to build school-like facilities, and to operate public schools. The money saved is money the State can use to hire more teachers, decrease class sizes, buy books -- and reduce property taxes!
What we've done can be done elsewhere!
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Hudson County, New Jersey is a place of many firsts - including genocide and slavery.
Political corruption is a tradition here.
First in a series by Anthony Olszewski – Click HERE to find out more.
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