Health & Fitness
New Jersey School Aid is a Wealth Transfer Plan
NJ has never met its responsibility to non Abbott districts and under Christie still does not.
Governor Chris Christie fancies himself the champion of the middle class. His highly publicized battles with government workers make him a darling to some national republicans. It does little to solve the problem of escalating New Jersey property taxes.
The key to solving the property tax burden is either a) remove state mandates thereby releasing the ingenuity of local school districts to save money or b) paying for state mandates thereby relieving local officials of costs they cannot control. Governor Christie, like most politicians, talks about smaller roles of government when running for office but embrace the power once elected.
Education state aid should be based on the money needed to provide every state student the minimum required education. These funds should come from state as it is required by it. ANY program or expense above this level should come from local taxpayers. This type of reform would relieve local officials from asking voters to approve a budget that is mostly mandated by Trenton and let them vote only on the extras.
The New Jersey financial aid for education program is nothing less than a massive transfer of wealth. 50.4 percent of dollars are spent on 17.9 percent of students. These students receive about $15,000 per student in state aid. 59.6 percent of students receive on average $2,241 of state aid per student. 40 percent of students receive almost 4.5x the level of state aid of the other 60 percent. This is liberal orthodoxy Governor Christies has done nothing to change.
100 percent state aid for minimum school needs would encourage rational mandates as the level of government that creates the mandates would pay for them. The governor, through the department of education, may say he is providing a specific benefit for students by creating a new mandate. The same governor that castigates local officials when they have to raise taxes to pay for the mandates his department requires. Those creating the mandate should pay for it.
We need officials who are dedicated to reducing the power of centralized government by freeing local governments to make decisions.
The six charts attached to this blog support my argument. The link below is a link to a slide show of the graphs. You may read explanations by choosing the speaker notes under actions.
LIDE PRESENTATION OF GRAPHS - USE ACTIONS SPEAKER NOTES TO SEE EXPLINATION
