PACKET EDITORIAL, April 11
A week from today, an absurdly small percentage of eligible voters will go to the polls in cities and towns across New Jersey and decide the fate of an absurdly large percentage of their tax dollars.
At the same time, they’ll bestow upon hundreds of their friends and neighbors the thankless task of serving on the local board of education.
School elections, an annual rite of spring in the Garden State, generally draw about as much public interest and attention as a PBS special on bird fossils of New Guinea on Super Bowl Sunday. Voter turnout in many districts doesn’t even reach double digits. This despite the fact that, on average, three out of every four dollars raised through property taxes are spent on the local schools.
In a state that boasts the highest property taxes in the nation, one would think an election in which the school budget itself is on the ballot the only budget on which New Jersey citizens get to cast a direct vote would find voters flocking to the polls. Instead, there are two, much smaller subsets of voters that can be counted on to turn out: ardent supporters of public education, who vote for the budget no matter how large it is, and disgruntled taxpayers, who vote against the budget no matter how small it is.
As a practical matter, it makes little difference which side prevails in any given year. If the budget is approved, the district goes ahead and spends the allocated funds. If it’s defeated, the budget is subjected to an elaborate review process, with appeals available at the municipal, county and state levels. Once that process has run its course, a token sum at most might be trimmed from the budget, and the district then goes ahead and spends the allocated funds.
But as a statement of principle, the vote on the school budget is very important. It symbolizes a community’s level of commitment to its public schools. It reflects how much educational bang residents feel they’re getting for their property-tax buck. It illustrates the well of support or reservoir of distrust built up by the current board and administration.
It is, in essence, a vote of confidence in or a statement of misgiving about the overall direction the school district is taking.
We believe all three of our area school districts Princeton, Montgomery and West Windsor-Plainsboro deserve a vote of confidence. All three districts have brought their 2006-2007 budgets in at or below the state-imposed cap, which is no small accomplishment at a time when the cost of energy, health benefits and other non-discretionary items is skyrocketing. At the same time, all three districts continue to provide the highest-quality education, ranking at or near the top of New Jersey’s public schools by virtually every available measure of academic achievement.
As we have noted before in this space, providing adequate funding for education isn’t just in the public interest; it is in homeowners’ enlightened self-interest, as property values rise or fall in direct proportion to the quality of the local schools. In Princeton, Montgomery, West Windsor and Plainsboro, residents will do what is best for their children and themselves by turning out next Tuesday and voting for their school budgets.

