A
Trojan horse threatens urban schools
Friday, October
01, 2004 • BY DAVID G. SCIARRA
At the first meeting of
the property tax convention task force, a legal expert
warned there will be "winners and losers" if a convention is
held to amend the state constitution. This first meeting
also made clear who the losers will be: New Jersey's 1.2
million public school students -- especially the mostly
poor, black and Latino students in our urban
schools.
The task force has already
signaled it wants a convention in order to reduce property
taxes by cutting spending on essential services. That
includes spending on public education in all school
districts. And some task force members are taking special
aim at the funding ordered to improve our high-poverty urban
schools by the state Supreme Court in the landmark Abbott
vs. Burke case.
Because of the recent
Abbott rulings, poor and minority children in Newark,
Paterson, Camden and 28 other urban districts finally have
adequate resources to support their education, after 50
years of segregation, isolation and neglect.
One self-appointed task
force member, Senate Minority Leader Leonard Lance, is a
proponent of amending the "thorough and efficient" education
clause of the constitution to rescind the Abbott funding
"parity" remedy. Under the Lance proposal, urban schools
would no longer be funded at the level spent in suburban
schools as Abbott requires, but lowered to the statewide
average. The Lance proposal is a reverse Robin Hood scheme
that would cut hundreds of millions in funds from poor urban
schools for redistribution to lower property taxes in
more-affluent towns.
The Legislature has
refused to act on the Lance proposal and similar proposals
in the past. Now Lance is ready to use the constitutional
convention to accomplish what he cannot do legislatively:
finance property tax relief by scaling back funding for
urban schools to 1990s levels. In this way, Lance and his
supporters would succeed in weakening the education rights
of poor and minority students and cementing inequality
directly in our constitution.
Several other task force
members recently voted for legislation imposing strict
spending caps on school budgets in all communities. The caps
are so strict that many school districts now face having to
cut education programs just to pay for increases in teacher
salaries, health benefits and other fixed costs. In order to
reduce property taxes, it's a sure bet that proponents of
school spending caps would push hard to make them even more
severe -- and permanent -- at the constitutional
convention.
The convention is being
marketed as the only way to overcome legislative gridlock on
property taxes. Don't be fooled. The convention is a Trojan
horse: It masquerades an effort by those who want to roll
back New Jersey's historic progress in improving public
schools, particularly those serving minority and poor
children. And the opponents of education equity are counting
on a runaway convention to undo over 30 years of hard-fought
gains to ensure adequate funding for all children -- urban,
suburban, middle income, rural -- to get a high-quality
education.
New Jersey has arguably
the best overall K-12 school system in the nation; a
significant investment is required to maintain it. Because
of Abbott, we are the only state to close the funding gap
between the poorest and wealthier school districts. Dozens
of states are now in court over this gap, including our
neighbor New York, which may soon face a $6 billion court
order to improve school funding in New York City
alone.
So when politicians blame
school spending for high property taxes, ask them to
identify just one state that delivers better public
education and equitably funds its high-poverty schools at a
lower cost than New Jersey does. They can't, because there
isn't one.
Our current problem with
school funding is quite simple: Overall state aid for
education has been flat for two decades, leaving most local
districts with no alternative but to raise property taxes to
maintain high-quality schools. Even when the Legislature
increased state aid for urban schools to meet the Abbott
court order, it stubbornly refused to increase state aid to
other needy districts and to lower property taxes in
districts with excessive school tax rates.
Yet in response to the
same Abbott order to fix dilapidated urban school buildings,
the Legislature passed a school construction program that is
providing billions in construction aid to school districts
statewide, giving every community real property tax
relief.
The Legislature now needs
the courage to do the same for school funding -- in other
words, do the job they're elected to do.
The constitutional
convention is a blatant attempt to turn back the clock to
the not-too-distant past, when the quality of a child's
education in New Jersey was determined by where you lived,
your family's income, and the color of your
skin.
Let's make sure that
doesn't happen by sending the task force a simple message:
Hands off our schools and the education rights of our
children.
David G. Sciarra is executive director of the Education
Law Center, and serves as counsel in Abbott vs. Burke.
Copyright 2004 The Star-Ledger. Used by NJ.com with
permission.
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