Yes, there’s too much money in education for its own good

Gov. Chris Christie (R-NJ) visits a Camden, NJ classroom in January 2014.

By Matt Rooney | The Save Jersey Blog

Nation-wide, Americans spend roughly $3.2 trillion on local and state governments; 28% of those dollars, or $869.2 billion, are earmarked for education.

Back in 2014, Save Jerseyans, when I insisted that the Christie Administration’s plan to spend millions more on infrastructure upgrades at Camden High was tantamount to “money down the drain” for New Jersey taxpayers, you would’ve thought that I kicked an orphan or a nun in the face!

I suppose it’s counter-intuitive for the disengaged (or self-interested). How can LESS money result in a superior product? Equating cash with caring is a natural impulse. Establishment Republicans and unrepentant liberals alike were jumping down my throat. Our “team” was afraid to challenge an injurious premise.

No more. Things change. Property taxes, on the other hand, continue to rise notwithstanding a good faith

Gov. Chris Christie (R-NJ) visits a Camden, NJ classroom in January 2014.
Gov. Chris Christie (R-NJ) visits a Camden, NJ classroom in January 2014.

attempt to cap them and retard their growth. Governor Chris Christie is out with his new plan to reform New Jersey’s school funding by equalizing state aid; each child (with the exception of special needs students) gets a flat $6,500.

You can click here to find out how your district would fare.

The vast majority of Garden State towns – ranging from small-ish suburban hamlets to larger ones like Atlantic City – would see not just more aid per student but also significant property tax relief.

How? Because, right now, thirty-one school districts have taken in $97 billion over the past thirty years while the other 546 school districts split shared $88 billion. That’s math almost anyone can understand.

Frankly, I almost wouldn’t care if our huge investment – around $30,000 in aid PER K-12 student, per year, in some urban district – were actually helping those children get a leg up and revitalize those communities.

It’s not. We’re already spending roughly twice the national average per child but only 3 of 26 Camden public schools aren’t considered “failing” institutions and, amazingly, in 2013, only three Camden high school students were deemed college-ready based on their SAT scores.

We’re paying the nation’s highest property taxes but isn’t helping New Jersey’s children. So what’s the point? I suppose wasting other people’s money makes foolish, selfish, well-heeled white liberals feel better about themselves while working families, business owners and retirees of all backgrounds, colors and creeds flee across the bridges to cheaper, less-taxed states. Pathetic.

What’s worse? Not only is the money NOT helping, Save Jerseyans, but we’re also enabling waste and abuse. It’s actually hurting the situation by protecting the public school monopolies from having to compete and, in so doing, get better and more efficient at delivering a quality product at a reasonable costs.

Look at some recent numbers and tell me I’m wrong:

Camden City schools spent $306,457,458 taxpayer dollars during the 2011-12 school year, the most recent year for which state figures are available. That works out to roughly $24,000 per student, well-above the New Jersey average of $18,000, reports Trentonian.com.

That allowed the district to drop a lot of money – $987,564 on legal fees, $394,818 on professional conferences and workshops, $708,817 on various consultants, $86,939 on restaurants and catering and $160,666 on drug and alcohol treatment – with little to show for it in the way of student achievement.”

The examples are nearly endless, and they range from school lunch scandals to suspiciously-high quotes for roofing repairs. That’s before we even examine how much we’re wasting on administrative costs AND these politically-affiliated testing and text book companies. It’s criminal, folks, but the cycle repeats because failing public schools are guaranteed tax levies on an annual basis regardless of how they reform. Imagine if you could earn the SAME salary regardless of how hard you worked. What would be the point of trying?

It’s long-past time to make them work for their money. Implementing choice reforms – including providing access to vouchers and charter schools – as well as equalizing school funding as proposed by Governor Christie, represent the ONLY path forward to save this state and its schools.

In the wake of an audit of Jefferson County Public Schools (in Kentucky), released around the same time as my ‘toilet’ post, Kentucky State Auditor Adam Edelen observed how “an unchecked bureaucracy that has become bloated and inefficient at the expense of the classroom.”

His observation is no less apt when scrutinizing New Jersey’s broken public school system. We need to force these bureaucrats to evolve or, if they can’t (or won’t), get out of the way and let another institution make better use of our heard-earned tax dollars.

Tough love time: you’re not doing children in Newark or Trenton ANY favors by throwing money in their direction particularly when most of those dollars never reach the class room. Don’t accept a bad premise as the N.J. GOP did for far too long until… well, until last week. Demand reform!

Everyone wins except for the institutionally-corrupt leeches who deserve to lose.

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Matt Rooney
About Matt Rooney 8403 Articles
MATT ROONEY is SaveJersey.com's founder and editor-in-chief, a practicing New Jersey attorney, and the host of 'The Matt Rooney Show' on 1210 WPHT every Sunday evening from 7-10PM EST.