Of Property Taxes and Education:  If you live in New Jersey, there's always one thing with which your fellow Jerseyans agree with you:  your property taxes are too high.  And, come election time, there's always one thing every politician will agree with:  property taxes are too high, and if you elect them, something will be done about it.

Well, bullshit.

Property taxes are set by, and are collected at, the local level.  Don't believe me?  Just look at your tax bill next time and see to whom the check is being written.  Bet'cha a nickel it ain't the State of New Jersey.  So any state politician who says they're going to reduce property taxes?  They can't.  Not unless the state legislature and the Governor find the political will to tell the 600+ separate localities in New Jersey that from now on all the property taxes will be set by and collected by the state.  Think that'll happen?  If you do, I'll save you a seat at the first snowball fight in Hell.

Property taxes are set by the local municipalities, with input from you.  Don't believe me?  OK.  Look at your tax bill and find how much is set aside for education, how much for running the town, etc.  Now look at the next sample ballot you recieve -- you should be getting one every year -- and look to see if there are any public questions about raising money for any of those categories from the tax bill.  Usually those questions are about giving more money, not about giving less (or even standing still, for that matter).  So:  if you vote "yes" on the public question, then you are automatically giving the municipality permission to raise your tax bill to pay for it.

Oh, and by the way, education -- your public school system -- takes the lion's share of just about every town budget in the state.

Now here's the fun part.  The state constitution gives the state the responsibility for providing a "thorough and efficient education" to every school-age child in the state.  The state Supreme Court ruled that, because property taxes were inherently unequal between and among the towns, they couldn't be used to fund education.  So the state Legislature and the Governor have had to find ways to fund education that weren't unequal and illegal.  Thus was born, in part, the Property Tax Rebate.  Not that your taxes get any smaller, oh, no.  But some of that money you gave the town comes back to you from the state.  And where does the state get its money?  Why, from you, of course.

Me, I'd rather see a smaller property tax bill and let the state make up the difference to the towns.  Actually, I'd rather see more school district consolidation in order to effect economies of scale and thus lower some of the costs of that thorough and efficient education.

Anyway, the state, as we're told, is fiscally in the crapper.  Money for education just isn't in the state's purse right now, so aid to municipalities is being cut.  And because aid is being cut, and this being a recession and all, people are losing their jobs.  And some of those people are teachers.

Don't get me wrong.  I've had mostly good experiences with New Jersey teachers my entire life, and while I didn't get along with all of them, they all had a hand in making me the man I am today.  I also have friends who are teachers, so I know from them just how hard teaching as a profession actually is these days.

But I've been listening to the arguments about education budget cuts.  And all too often, the argument I've heard most is, "Oh, no, teachers are going to be fired!  We can't let this happen!"

Y'know what?  I've been downsized out of two jobs, one after 20 years of service, the other after 7 1/2 years.  I don't recall anyone wailing about how my being let go just couldn't be allowed to happen.  And in a recession, I think one of the most obscene things of all is believing that any profession is too sacrosanct not to be affected by layoffs.

What I haven't been hearing -- because the discussion has been allowed to be about how awful it is that an educator should be let go -- is what adults would be talking about right now:  namely, just what does constitute "thorough and efficient education", and how can we fund that.  What's educationally important to us?  What kind of arguments can be made in favor of having classes in certain subjects and not in others?  What sacrifices am I being asked to make -- and what sacrifices are school employees being asked to make?  Most importantly, how we can stop being "the town vs. the school" and start being "the town and the school working together"?

And I guess, when it comes down to it, the basic question of all is:  when can we start helping our children by acting, at last, like adults?