Taxes and Education
by Bret Schundler
Mayor of Jersey City
This article is the third in a series of three articles on education reform
In two previous articles, I have written of school choice as a human right and as a way to increase educational achievement. In this article, I will explain how school choice would help to reduce taxes in New Jersey.
I will use the situation in my community, Jersey City, as an example. Like communities everywhere, we have an over-crowding problem in our public schools. The post-World War II Baby Boom peaked around 1960. Those 1960 babies are grown now and having children themselves, creating a "Baby Boomlet." Accordingly, school districts all over the State are being swamped as each kindergarten cohort rolls in larger than the last. Here in Jersey City, our problem is aggravated by the tremendous economic boom taking place in Jersey City. Reduced crime and stable taxes have resulted in middle-class families moving back to Jersey City. The combination of these two factors, the Baby Boomlet phenomenon and Jersey City's general population growth, has resulted in our government schools being 5,800 students over capacity.
To remedy this severe over-crowding, State-appointed school district officials are seeking to construct ten new government schools in Jersey City, at a capital cost of $300 million. Financing the construction of these ten new schools over twenty years, and operating them, would cost taxpayers an incremental $78 million a year.
State officials also want to replace four 19th century school buildings in Jersey City which they do not believe can be brought up to modern government standards. These additional schools would not require the hiring of new staff, but their $120 million construction cost would hit taxpayers with an additional $10 million per year in financing expense.
Now, remember, Jersey City is a State-administered school district. This means that local officials such as myself have no say over this massive spending. This also means that the vast majority of school spending in Jersey City is paid for with State funds. Every citizen in the State of New Jersey will be bearing a portion of this increased tax burden.
I do not believe that this massive increase in spending will meaningfully improve educational opportunity in Jersey City. Neither will it recognize the human right of parents to direct their children's education. And much of this new spending is unnecessary!
Jersey City has over 3,000 vacant spaces available in privately managed schools that do a wonderful job of educating children at a fraction of the cost of our government schools. The average tuition of a privately-managed elementary school in Jersey City is less than $2,000 a year. The average tuition of our privately-managed secondary schools is less than $4,000 a year. Both of these tuition levels are less than a third of what we spend in Jersey City's government schools of equivalent grade level.
These 3,000 plus seats in our privately-managed schools are empty for one simple reason: our low-income residents cannot afford the tuition. If a school choice program were implemented in Jersey City, that provided parents who privately educate their children a State tax refund of $2,000 for every grade K-6 child, and a refund of $3,000 for every grade 7-12 child, these seats would fill up and our privately-managed schools would probably add capacity to their current school buildings -- the latter at absolutely no capital construction cost to New Jersey taxpayers.
Providing an on-average $2,500 State tax refund for every one of the 3,000 children who would fill up these vacant seats, and also for the 10,000 children who already attend privately-managed schools in Jersey City, would cost State taxpayers $32.5 million per year. But it would save State taxpayers $42 million per year in new public school construction and staffing costs.
In other words, if we implemented a school choice program in Jersey City, we could recognize parents human right to choose their children's school, improve educational opportunity for our children, and save taxpayers money -- all at the same time! And the more Jersey City's privately-managed schools increased their capacity to meet increased parental demand, the more money taxpayers would save!
Let me expand on this latter point. If privately-managed schools in Jersey City increased their capacity to accommodate an additional 2,800 students, the cost of our school choice program would rise to $39.5 million. But by totally eliminating the over-crowding crisis in our government-run school system, it would save State taxpayers $78 million in new school construction and operating.
If Jersey City's privately-managed schools added yet another 2,000 spaces, so that our State-operated school district could just close those four old, 19th century schools instead of having to replace them, our school choice program cost would rise to $45 million. But it would save State taxpayers $105 million in government school construction and operating costs. State taxpayers would be able to net a savings of $60 million per year!
Charter school expansion can also help to lower taxes -- though not as dramatically. Charter schools are independently-managed public schools. They receive operating funds from the State on a per-child-enrolled basis, at a rate of 90% of whatever the local school district is spending per child (which in Jersey City, is an average of $8,900 per year, before any special needs money is factored in). But charter schools receive no capital construction dollars from taxpayers. Instead, they must pay for their space needs out of their operating dollars. (This is not wholly problematic because freed from the bureaucracy of the government school system, charter schools are highly efficient, with far less money spent on administration.)
Because I wrote the proposal that, after compromise and amendment, became New Jersey's charter school law, it should come as no surprise that Jersey City leads the State in charter schools already operating, and has additional charter school applications pending. If we reduce the over-crowding in our government school system by expanding the number of charter schools in Jersey City, instead of by building new government-operated schools, we will save $26 million a year in new school financing costs, and $5 million per year in operating costs (5,800 children x $8,900 per child x 10% savings per child). This adds up to a savings of $31 million per year for State taxpayers. And again, the savings would be even larger if we closed our four old, 19th century schools and replaced them with charter schools.
I think I've made my point. Expanding school choice in New Jersey would dramatically reduce taxes!
If you want to know why your property taxes are always going up, you need look no farther than our State Legislature, where many Democratic and Republican office-holders quake before the New Jersey Education Association and its demands that the government school monopoly on public funding be maintained at literally any cost.
I don't blame the union bosses, who everyone knows are out for their own good. I blame those legislative leaders who claim that they want to help the people of New Jersey, even as they deny us our basic human right to guide the education of our children, deny our children the quality educational opportunity they deserve, and devastate our taxpayers absolutely needlessly!
Get A FREE Bumper Sticker!
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.
COMPUTERCRAFT
|
