In theory, the solution to this problem would be to have education entirely financed by the state legislature, and on the basis of a progressive income tax. But public education advocates have been cautious here for a number of reasons: (1) property taxes are much less susceptible to the vagaries of the political process, and thus, are a more stable, even if inadequate, source of funding than state taxes; education requires long-term investments, and huge swings in funding are never good -- what is lost on a downturn, especially the experienced human capital, is never simply regained on an upswing. (2) there is no guarantee that state funds will be distributed in an appropriate, fair manner; in NY State, the funding formulas are pure "window dressing," recognized as such by all parties; the politicians make a decision about who gets how much, and then the green eyeshade people go work it out in terms of the formulae. Results: NYC and other urban areas get screwed, receiving even a smaller proportion of state funds than their percentage of the state student population. [And NYC is, of course, the area with the greatest concentration of high academic need students -- special education, English language learners, etc.] (3) the history in states where the shift to central state funding have been made, such as Michigan and California, are not exactly models of what one would want to see duplicated.
It will be interesting to see the results of the Campaign for Fiscal Equity law suit in NY, should they get to the remedy phase. The CFE studied the results of law suits in other states quite closely, and have attempted to develop a remedy strategy which avoids their shortcomings.
Max wrote:
> The conventional leftie wisdom is that prop
> taxes are
> regressive because landlords pass these taxes
> along to
> renters. I am skeptical. I think property
> ownership
> reflects income, so property taxes track income.
> They are closer to proportional, neither regressive
> nor progressive.
Leo Casey United Federation of Teachers 260 Park Avenue South New York, New York 10010-7272 (212-598-6869)
Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never has, and it never will. If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet deprecate agitation are men who want crops without plowing the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its waters. -- Frederick Douglass --
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