After cuts in education will come a ‘teachable moment’
As we all know, the bill for years of mismanagement, overspending and prolific waste at the state level has finally come due, and New Jersey is on the brink of financial disaster unless Gov. Chris Christie can bring our state’s bank account to heel. He’s imposing draconian cuts in state spending across the board, and the amazing thing is that for the first time in eons, even most Democrats are resigned to the fact that something dramatic and unpleasant must be done.
Nowhere have those cuts shocked state residents at such a visceral level as the slashing of the state’s aid to education. Virtually every school district in New Jersey is scrambling to figure out how to provide an adequate public school education in the face of such frightening reductions in state aid.
Christie had cut $560 million in previously approved spending for education back in February, and the state budget he proposed recently for fiscal 2010-11 would cut about $1.06 billion. Of that, $820 million would be aid to K-12 public education, and $175 million would be aid to colleges and universities.
The size of those cuts will mean that every school district in the state will have considerably less money next year and must finally make adjustments in spending that should have come long ago.
Because there are caps in the amount that taxes at the local level can be raised each year for education, and with even more restrictive caps in the works, those districts have few options. Most of them have already increased property taxes to the point that this state has the highest local and state tax burdens in the nation. Even if districts could pass wallet-busting property tax hikes big enough to make up for the reductions in state aid, taxpayers just couldn’t afford it and would likely revolt. Which means the only choice left is making serious cuts to staff and programs.
Last week, nearly every newspaper in Greater Media’s stable was dominated by stories of how the cuts might affect local school districts in the coming year.
In East Brunswick, where I live and pay property taxes, there will likely be a 32.44 percent reduction in state aid next year, or about $6.6 million. The proposed budget calls for a hike of 15.8 cents per $100 of valuation in