Our view

School districts deserve
better from the state

Local school districts can’t seem to catch a break. First, the Monmouth County Vocational School District tries to hit them with a first-time, last-minute tuition hike for shared-time students. The new tuition was presented to many school districts after the 2003-04 budgets were presented to the public and voted on by local school boards.

The additional tuition would have forced those districts either to suddenly raise the school tax hikes already presented to the public or make cuts to completed budgets.

Fortunately, the county decided to foot the vocational school’s tuition bill for the school districts for the 2003-04 school year, perhaps putting off the inevitable by a year.

Less than a week before voters went to the polls to choose Board of Education candidates and decide whether or not to pass school budgets, the state landed a direct fiscal hit on school districts statewide.

In its infinite wisdom, the state Joint Budget and Oversight Committee voted a few weeks ago to take 5 percent of state aid away from every school district in the state this year.

The money will be used to replace federal nursing home funding the state has not yet received.

This means the final of 20 state aid payments allotted to school districts for the 2002-03 school year won’t be sent out. Instead, the state legislators are delaying the final payment until after the beginning of the 2003-04 fiscal school year.

While they try to sugarcoat the process by saying the payment will only be a few weeks late, they fail to highlight that the late payment will count as the first of the 20 state aid payments for the 2003-04 school year.

That means school districts will only get 19 payments for 2002-03.

Although the state acts as if it isn’t taking anything away from the school districts, it is. The 20th payment is gone. School districts are, once again, left holding the bag.

Does the state think school district administrators and school boards believe its promise to return the payment once the economy turns around?

When has the state government ever returned newfound money? After 50 years, it’s pretty certain that the money generated by the Garden State Parkway tolls has paid for the road’s construction, but the tolls remain. They surely don’t exist only to antagonize drivers. The tolls are still around because the politicians don’t want to let go of the income they generate.

It’s amazing how easily legislators pick at the core of the state’s public education system by bleeding it, and local taxpayers, dry.

It’s bad enough that the public education system has had to endure flat state aid "increases" over the past four years while the cost of living has increased 12 percent. Where is that money made up? The politicians know local taxpayers can and will be forced to foot the bill.

With the economy lagging and some residents losing their jobs, it would make sense for the state to ease the burdens of its citizens.

But no. The political apathy toward the state’s public school system and its residents is sad. The burden to pay for expensive state-mandated core curriculum educational programs should squarely fall on the shoulders of the state and its policy makers. It’s time to give school districts and taxpayers a break.