Education: A Community Commitment

As each town and city works their finances to cover the direct and indirect costs of public schooling - the battle lines are being drawn -- again. Perhaps it's time to consider broader solutions to the same old problems.

The old argument: The quality of education does not correspond to the level of compensation educators receive. This is both an objective and subjective statement. What does good look like, compared to what and based on what measures and for whom?

What's really being said: Why do teachers/administrators receive a relatively high salary, benefits and retirement compared to other similarly educated individuals in the private sector? The level of our children’s learning often does not seem to be worth what we/you/I are paying in property taxes.

Old response: The labor unions negotiated these contracts in good faith with the municipalities hired and elected officials. The quality of a child's education is a shared commitment between parent, teacher and child. Parents need to be involved. More (tax payer) money for schools translates to higher property values. Conversely, under-performing schools tend to stagnate property values. "Don't you care about the children?"

Acknowledgment: Education is a labor intensive profession, which means the greatest cost will be compensation. It's reasonable some metric of compensation, performance and market factors ought to be weighed. This is true for most fields. Otherwise, property owners will be squeezed for higher property taxes at a rate well in excess of the personal growth of their income with no assurance of a higher level of student performance commensurate with financial increases. In other words, does more money mean better performance?

The old paradigm: Federal level mandates create measures that may be too inflexible to allow for improvements given the fact that different communities have different challenges. The common issue is that inadequate federal dollars are being received to create improvements and relieve the pressure on property owners with the state passing the political "hot potato" to the local municipalities. There are many redundant districts and an unwillingness to merge them to achieve certain cost savings due to some objections of loss of local control and employment.

The new shared commitment: If we acknowledge that public education is one of the rare opportunities to invest in our future, it stands to reason we all benefit when this is an investment that provides a level of return with which most of us are comfortable. Are property taxes the best and most equitable manner to pay for most of the costs of public education? Do local small and large businesses, social and civic organizations benefit from having a home grown, locally educated future work force? It stands to reason keeping our best and brightest within our communities and state is the larger goal. This is not a passive investment where we pay taxes and have somebody else push our kids through, but an active one where local, state and federal commitments are created.

A better solution? Alternative funding through the creation of state and federal tax credits for citizens and business donors to invest in a pool for public education fund is needed. The creation of a national lottery where net proceeds are distributed on a periodic basis while applying a formula of ticket sales per state and the population of public education attendees by state would also provide financial relief with no new taxes.

District level faith, civic and government based "enterprises" could be created for after-school mentoring to accommodate dual wage earner and single parent households. It could be supported by local businesses which would receive recognition/support for their investment in a future pool of employees and entrepreneurs. Undoubtedly, communities will create optimal models with high performing results that can then be replicated.

What remains to be seen is whether our governments, union leaders, businesses, chambers of commerce, places of faith, teachers, parents and students will be up to the challenge. I have confidence they will; if it's a shared community commitment for building our future.