OP-ED: A School Funding Plan That's Fair and Constitutional

New Jersey’s government is ruining life in this state and is in serious need of an attitude adjustment.

We cannot live as a free and prosperous people as long as we live under a government that thinks that it’s it’s job to run the economy, to take care of all our problems, to keep us from hurting ourselves and to make life “fair.” Trenton needs to learn that our lives and our property belong to us. They are not a public resource for them to mine like a vein of copper in the side of a mountain. 

One of the more destructive policies we are saddled with is our current school funding formula. It has been imposed on us by an out-of-control state supreme court with no constitutional authority to determine school funding policy. Through the state income tax, hundreds of millions of dollars are taken from middle and upper income wage earners and distributed to the political machines and ineffective and overweight educational establishments of a select group of mostly urban districts. Suburban property tax payers, after having up to almost nine percent of their income confiscated in order to build urban school buildings that look more like palaces, must then pay almost the entire bill for their local schools with their property tax. Parents, like myself, who choose to send their children to private or parochial schools must pay a third time. This is what our supreme court has decided is “fair.”

One state leader who understands that the current system is both unfair and unconstitutional is Senator Mike Doherty (R-23). He has proposed a simple school funding plan that is fair, sensible and constitutional. Under his plan the total collected in state income tax is divided equally among all of New Jersey’s school-age children. Currently it comes out to about $7500 per child per year. Each town would receive that amount of aid for every child aged 5 to 18 that lives in that town. In my home town of Belmar, enactment of this plan would bring us an additional $3.1 million in state aid, enough to cut our property taxes by over 20%! Information about Senator Doherty’s plan is available at http://fairschoolfunding.com .

Doherty has prepared a sample resolution for towns and counties to pass urging enactment of a fair school funding formula. So far it has been passed by Hunterdon County, Warren County and Mendham Township. I am trying to get Belmar to pass it. It reads as follows:

WHEREAS, the ___________________ believes that every child should have equal resources of state aid distributed by the legislature for an education in the State of New Jersey by utilizing a fair school funding mechanism; and

WHEREAS, the current distribution of state aid for education to the schools has not been distributed in a fair and equitable manner to provide property tax relief to all the citizens of the State of New Jersey; and

WHEREAS, Article JIL, Paragraph 1, of the New Jersey State Constitution states, "The powers of government shall be divided among three distinct branches, the legislative; executive, and judicial. No person or persons belonging to or constituting one branch shall exercise any of the powers properly belonging to either of the others, except as expressly provided in this Constitution;" and

WHEREAS, Article VIII, Section IV, Paragraph 1, of the New Jersey State Constitution states, "the Legislature shall provide for the maintenance and support of a thorough and efficient system of free public schools for the instruction of all children in the State between the ages of five and eighteen year;" and

WHEREAS, Article VIII, Section IV, Paragraph 2, of the New Jersey State Constitution states, "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 this State;" and

WHEREAS, Article VIII, Section I, Paragraph 7.a. of the New Jersey State Constitution states, the income tax is to be "annually appropriated ... exclusively for the purpose of reducing or offsetting property taxes;" and

WHEREAS, this body can no longer bear the burden of the continued diversion of its fair share of state school aid for the students between the ages of five and eighteen years of age who reside within this jurisdiction.

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the ____________ do hereby call upon the Legislature of the State of New Jersey to fulfill its constitutionally assigned duty to distribute the state aid for education to the school districts in this state in a fair manner that is for the equal benefit of all the people of the state and not by means that are prejudiced by the actions of special interests that may have been presented before the Court or other venue.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Clerk of this entity is hereby directed to forward a copy of this resolution to Governor Chris Christie, Senate President Stephen Sweeney, Senate Minority Leader Thomas Kean Jr., Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver and Assembly Minority Leader Alex DeCroce.

While the plan proposed by Senator Doherty would be a giant step in the right direction, there are two changes I would like to see. First, parents who decide to opt out of the public school system and send their children to private or parochial school should receive that $7500 instead of the town. The town should only receive money for the children it is actually educating. My other change to the plan would be to fund it with the sales tax instead of the income tax. Taxes on income and capital gains are taxes on wealth creation. They discourage productive people from living and investing here and destroy jobs. Nine states have no income tax and all nine are in better shape fiscally than New Jersey. If I am elected to the assembly my number one goal would be to eliminate these destructive taxes on wealth creation.

New Jersey’s problems are too big at this point to fix incrementally. Major changes are necessary. Enactment of a fair school funding formula and elimination of the state income tax would go a long ways towards restoring our health. 

David Schneck is a Belmar resident and the Libertarian Party Candidate for Assembly in New Jersey’s 30th Legislative District. He writes a blog at www.commonsenseforbelmar.com.

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