By AUBRIE GEORGE | The Marlton Telegram
As the race continues for three, 3-year seats opening up on the Evesham Township School District Board of Education, this year’s candidates weighed in on how they think public education should be funded and discussed whether or not they would make changes to the current system.
(School board candidates Lisa Mansfield, Barry Fitzgerald and Joseph De Julius are running together and submitted a group response.)
The following are their responses:
Lisa Mansfield, Joseph M. De Julius and Barry Fitzgerald
In these tough economic times we are committed to providing a quality education to all of our students. It is our goal to work within the limits set by the state of New Jersey and the taxpayers of Evesham Township to ensure that such an education is provided in the most efficient, effective, and economically responsible manner. There is an important relationship between education and economics. Our current economy is not strong and education is suffering the consequences from weakening tax bases. We can no longer rely solely on property taxes and state aid to fund public education. A different funding system is needed to provide a stable supply of revenue (Garner).
It is important to note that it is not the local school board’s responsibility to decide how public education should be funded. We understand New Jersey’s fiscal crisis. We appreciate the fact that our community and economy demand parity between the public and private sectors.
However, this task is very difficult to achieve when the funding and grants districts anticipated receiving from the state are cut midyear.
The state should consider the ramifications of unfunded mandates and the passage of legislation that supersedes federal requirements, all at a cost to our community.
We need and support legislative reform designed to give us the “tools” we need to further reduce costs.
The responsibility of the school board is to see that schools are run well. This involves exercising financial oversight over district administration, balancing students’ need and taxpayers’ ability to pay, and recognizing the importance of planning.
We will continue to define costs and create guidelines to determine if adequate funding has been provided to support the programs we attempt to fund each year. As funding from general revenue resources continues to decline, our district will want to examine all of its options to meet the challenge.
Corporate sponsorship, grants, and alternative energy are just some of the ways our district can gain resources without compromising the instructional program.
Jay Levenson
Let me address the second question first. Yes, changes must be made in our system of funding schools. Our reliance on property taxes has caused New Jersey to have the highest taxes in the country. But the problem is really a system of education that has become bloated beyond reason.
State educational mandates and redistribution of wealth have taken a big part of control away from local school districts and limited their ability to respond to local concerns.
Efforts by well-meaning, but misguided educational experts at the federal and state level have made profound impacts on the direction of education in this country.
Standards are absolutely required, but constant rethinking of these standards and educational methodologies has cost the taxpayers billions in restructured curricula and educational material.
These methodologies have failed to bring this country up to the same level as other developed nations.
I feel that we have the local talent necessary to design cost effective learning programs that will meet state standards for our students without outside intervention.
As for the first question, realistically, it is the citizens of the state who will pay for educating our children one way or another. Taxation is not the only option, however.
Corporate sponsorship is one viable alternative.
I am sure that many local, regional, and national companies would be willing to provide funds in return for the display of their logos on district literature, Web site, classroom material, and at after school activities, etc.
Strict rules will obviously be needed to prevent inappropriate participation, but I know that we can handle this concept.
Perhaps, a local charitable trust, similar to the Evesham Education Foundation, could be established through which wealthier citizens and businesses could make tax deductible contributions for local education.
It is time to rethink how we fund education.
