History of IDEA
Jeannie Oakes, Founder and Former Director
Youth Voice in School Finance
NEW REPORT: Los Angeles' road to A-G for all
Without Dollars and Sense Powerpoint
Past Educational Opportunity Reports
April 28: our IDEA on parcel taxes in the New York Times
- 05-02-2011
-
Director John Rogers comments about the unintended consequences of parcel taxes.
With the state facing a $26 billion deficit and no likelihood of a special June election to extend about $9 billion worth in taxes, school districts are looking into other options to close their growing budget gaps.
For many districts, a popular choice is a parcel tax, a temporary measure that imposes a fee on properties to raise funds for a number of school priorities, such as preventing layoffs, keeping valuable programs, maintaining infrastructure, etc. They require a two-thirds vote to pass.
They are expensive to place on a ballot, and since 1983, only 54 percent of 500 have met the threshold, most of them in affluent neighborhoods.
From the New York Times' School Districts Look to Parcel Taxes for Aid:
Scholars, meanwhile, worry that parcel taxes are corroding the state’s commitment to equal access in public education.
“Parcel taxes become a way to allow more affluent and privileged districts to secure the conditions for their district that cannot be provided to the state as a whole, given the current level of taxation,” said John Rogers, the director of U.C.L.A.’s Institute for Democracy, Education and Access, who has studied parcel taxes at length.
To read the full article, click here.
Send this
Print this
