« Winter Wonderland! | Main | Pet Lover's Alert!!!! »
Tax Education
Mayor sends Letter to Gov!
Mayor David N. Cicilline again addressed the relationship between education costs and property taxes to Governor Carceri, the Providence Journal reported.
The Journal quoted a letter Mayor Cicilline wrote to the Governor: "I am asking that, in your budget recommendations, you put an immediate halt to the recent trend of shifting a greater percentage of school costs to local property taxpayers
A newly released study from Education Week gave our state a D in funding public schools. RI was ranked 5th from the bottom.
Interestingly enough RI ranks among the tops for spending per pupil, a fact that the Governor’s response team was quick to jump on: “"spends with the best but often performs with the worst," is what Jeff Neal said, according to the article. Seems that our state greatly underperforms on the nationwide test, the National Assessment of Educational Progress.
This debate has been ongoing for some time with both sides making compelling arguments for their point of view. Providence does get a large chunk of state spending for schools and our schools do perform poorly statewide.
The ProJo article below, Mayor to governor: Property taxes cannot support schools mentions more of the ideas being tossed around.
JT
-
Mayor to governor: Property taxes cannot support schools
Mayor David N. Cicilline urges "an immediate halt to the recent trend of shifting a greater percentage of school costs to local property taxpayers."
01:00 AM EST on Friday, January 6, 2006
BY LINDA BORG
Journal Staff Writer
PROVIDENCE -- Mayor David N. Cicilline yesterday urged Governor Carcieri to stop what he called the recent trend of relying on property taxes to pay for public education.
Cicilline cited the latest study from Education Week, which gave Rhode Island a D for failing to adequately pay for its public schools. Only four states -- Vermont, Montana, Idaho and North Dakota -- received grades lower than Rhode Island's in Ed Week's annual report, Quality Counts. New Hampshire also received a D.
Although Rhode Island ranks among the highest in per-pupil spending, at $10,349 per student in 2003, Ed Week gives it poor marks for resource equity because it has no statewide financing formula for education.
"I am asking that, in your budget recommendations, you put an immediate halt to the recent trend of shifting a greater percentage of school costs to local property taxpayers," Cicilline wrote in a letter to Carcieri yesterday.
The mayor quoted state Education Commissioner Peter McWalters, who said that "the city is kicking in an increasing share each year through raising property taxes, and the kids are needier every year."
Carcieri spokesman Jeff Neal countered Cicilline's comments by saying that Rhode Island "spends with the best but often performs with the worst," referring to the state's typically lackluster performance on a nationwide test called the National Assessment of Educational Progress.
"Our per-pupil spending is among the highest in the country, and Providence gets a heavy share of the state school funding," Neal said.
This year, he said, the city will benefit from the sale of the Dunkin' Donuts Center, which will provide about $28 million that the city could spend on education.
Cicilline also asked that Carcieri help bring about a far and equitable formula to finance public education. In March 2004, the Rhode Island Public Expenditure Council, a public policy group, announced a plan to create a state property tax to pay for public education. RIPEC's proposal also called for establishing a minimum per-pupil spending level, which would even out financing disparities between rich and poor districts.
Although the legislature created a joint committee to study the issue in the spring 2004, the idea languished until recently. Now, the committee is preparing to seek bids to hire an expert to determine what an adequate education might cost.
ProJo.com
Posted at January 6, 2006 08:38 PM