Socialism: What’s mine is yours and what’s yours is mine? Mi casa es su casa? A primary goal of socialism is social equality. Impossible. The reality of socialism is that social equality is a myth and what actually occurs is a redistribution of wealth. We live in a class system and our schools are naturally part of a class society. The class system is not defined at birth, as some may have been brainwashed into believing. Wealthy families were created, somewhere down the road, by someone’s sacrifice, dedication, blood, and sweat. It is simply survival of the fittest.As a child, we watched Robin Hood steal from the rich and give to the poor. We thought this was a noble act as we crowned him a hero. The image in the movie, Robin Hood, was created by the poor, dressed in ragged clothing, splitting a crumb of food amongst a family of six. The rich, or royalty, live in a shiny castle and radiate elegance in rich materials and experiences. The rich therefore become easy to hate. We categorize them as evil. We automatically victimize the poor. The problem with wiping out the class system and creating social equality is a matter-of-fact question: who would Uncle Sam, or Robin Hood, steal from to keep funding the poor?
In New Jersey Public Schools, the answer is clear. The families who live in some of the richest counties in New Jersey, 3 of which are voted in the top 10 of ‘Forbes Richest Counties in the U.S.’, pay an average property tax of $8,000 to $20,000, annually. This is simply an average. Don’t be surprised to find property taxes above $40,000 a year in some of our wealthiest neighborhoods. Personal state-income taxes remain disclosed, but one could imagine. The towns with the highest property tax rates completely fund their public school system and acquire, most of the time, less than 1% of total state aid to assist in school funding. The reason behind this miscalculation is that high tax rates, due to fortunes and wealth, are actually used to fund the public school systems of the less-fortunate towns. Robin Hood in this scenario is the New Jersey State Supreme Court.
For example, the depressed city of Asbury Park, an Abbott district (Abbott vs. Burke Supreme Court Case), received nearly 89% of its school funding, not through town property tax, but through state aid.
The state aid in the 2010 school year consisted of a whopping $54,355,374 to be spread amongst the 2,300 students. A state audit of the school system discovered that the district was spending upwards of $29,819 per pupil annually. Asbury Park is considered one of New Jersey’s 31 poorest school districts (again, Abbott vs. Burke). Doesn’t look too shabby to me. On the other hand, the district of Rutherford, consisting of a nationally acclaimed Blue-Ribbon School of Excellence high school, had an average per pupil cost of $16,000 in the 2010 school year while receiving around $1.3 million in state aid. For the town of 2,434 students, a similar student population to Asbury Park, I divided the state aid amongst the Rutherford pupil count to discover that each pupil receives about $500 from the state towards their education costs.
To put this into prospective, www.NJ.com revealed a comparative study of the state-spending winner, Asbury Park, and a similar size district of Clinton. Clinton, residing in one of the richest counties in New Jersey and top 10 in the U.S., is collectively responsible for an average tax liability of $29,787,545. The town population consists of just over 13,000 residents and 1,591 students. In comparison, Asbury Park’s 11,800 residents had a collective tax liability of just $3.8 million. We already know that Asbury Park’s total student population consists of roughly 2,300 students. Clinton reported just $583,000 in 2010 total state aid for their school system while Asbury Park collected a total of $55 million. So let’s take a look at what each town gets back for every $1 they send to Trenton.
Clinton Twp. – $583,547/$29,787,545 = .02 cents
Asbury Park – $55,011,650/$3,835,809 = $14.34
Therefore concluding that for every dollar in income tax Clinton Township sends to the state capital, it gets back 2 cents in school funding while for every dollar Asbury Park sends to the state capital it gets back $14.34 in school funding.
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Town
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Clinton
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Asbury Park
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Town Tax Liability
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$29,787,545
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$3,835,809
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Per Person Tax Liability
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$2,240.00
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$326.00
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Total Students
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1,591
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2,316
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Per Pupil Cost to State
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$367.00
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$23,753.00+
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School Aid Cost to State
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$583,547
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$55,011,650
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Statistical references from: WWW.NJ.COM
Where is the balance? According to NJ Senator Doherty, a member of the State Budget and Appropriations Committee, it’s coming. Doherty has been recently holding town-hall meetings in small, suburban towns, including Clinton, to reiterate the bogus budgets amongst our state school system spending.
Doherty considered the Fair School Funding Plan after the State Supreme Court ruled against Governor Christie’s ( R) attempt to bring some more state aid to the small, struggling suburban districts – who are overburdened with taxes but hardly seeing a dime returned to their district as state aid.
Doherty: “This decision also perpetuates a failed legal theory that more money will improve educational outcomes. This theory has been disproved after more than three decades of Abbott decisions.”
Abbott districts (31 school systems) were decided in a Supreme Court ruling to take tax revenue from the wealthier school systems and distribute it as state aid, in high annual quantities, amongst the 31 poorest school systems in the state.
It sounds to me, that the State Supreme Court picks and chooses which sections of the Constitution are relevant. Article VIII, Section IV, paragraph 2 of the New Jersey Constitution states that the fund for the support of free public schools “shall be annually appropriated to the support of free public schools, and for the equal benefit of all the people of the State?” What is not stated in this section is that any town or district should get special consideration. When did the definition of “equal” change?
Thereafter, Doherty proposed, “At the next quorum of the Senate, I will introduce a proposed constitutional amendment that will forever remove the Court from decisions on how we fund our schools. The proposed constitutional amendment will provide equal school aid for each student, regardless of where the student resides. New Jersey needs to establish a fair, simple, transparent, and straightforward educational funding formula that takes the income tax fund and distributes the fund equally to each student. I believe the voters of this state will approve a fair school funding formula by an overwhelming margin.”
To View the full Fair School Funding Plan, visit: http://www.senatenj.com/uploads/doherty/doherty-school-funding.pdf
According to State Minority Leader, Senator Kean, we spend 56 percent of state education aid on 31 school districts that account for less than 25 percent of students statewide. The Fair School Funding Plan would increase school funding for 85% of New Jersey’s towns.
Socialism amongst our state school funding must come to an end, immediately. It is not fair to put our youngest citizens in the middle of this political circus. I firmly believe in a strong public school system and value a free public education. But is it in fact free and to whom is it free for? There are many political games that divide our State legislature in school funding practices. Enough is enough. What was once thought of as a noble gesture is now a political power-struggle. If Senator Doherty continues picking up fellow colleagues to co-sign and support his Bill then the Fair School Funding Plan could be held as a public vote soon. I urge everyone, who is capable of voting in the State of New Jersey, to take out a dictionary to revisit the words “fair” and “equal”.
After reading this post, if you believe the current school funding plan is failing 85% of our state’s students, then it is your responsibility as a tax payer, parent, former public school student, or state representative to advocate for the new plan and vote yes when and if the time comes.
