Germany Hotels To address your first concern, let's look at the experience of the Milwaukee voucherplan. In Milwaukee, families with children who are NOT doing well in public schools aremore likely to take advantage of the voucher system. Parents who have children that aredoing well in public school don't want to move them to another school, they're basicallysatisfied. That's why, under our voucher plan, public schools won't become a ghetto forchildren with less ability and motivation. In fact, public school test scores are likely toimprove because these schools are likely to keep the students that succeed in the learningenvironment they offer, while students who don't do well will seek out a program thataddresses their specific needs.
hotel a Blackpool Let me give you an example. Today a public school district will frequently send adeaf child to a private school that specializes in teaching deaf children. That child'seducation is paid with public dollars. So we already are using vouchers, but in this case,the school board controls where and when those vouchers are used. In contrast, if poorparents aren't satisfied with the quality of education their child receives in a public school,they have virtually no recourse. Without a viable alternative, how will we ever be able tohold public schools accountable for the quality or cost of the services they provide. In oneof the public high schools in Jersey City, only 28% of the children are reading at a levelsufficient to pass their high school proficiency test. Only twenty-eight percent! If you talkto parents that have to send their children to a school with these kind of performancenumbers, vouchers are an open and shut issue. They say, "You mean you want to give mychild the opportunity to go to a school that might work better for him, and you're going topay the bill?" I say, "Yes, that's what I'm going to do." They say, "Thank God." It's thatsimple. They don't see vouchers as a theoretical issue, it's a very real thing that means theywill be able to make sure their children can get a great education.
The second part of your question concerned the issue of cost inflation. Jersey Citycan't afford to spend anymore money on education. Our property owners are alreadyover-burdened, and the state is in no position to give us more money. So my legislationlimits the voucher to that amount which can be accommodated without increasing state orlocal spending, and without decreasing per-pupil spending in the public schools.
Here's how it works: We currently receive $6,000 per child from the StateDepartment of Education and local property taxpayers contribute about $3,000 per child. My plan asks the State to give Jersey City the same amount of money we receive today evenif some students transfer from a public to a private school. Then, if 5,000 students transferout of public school, and we continue to receive $6,000 in state funding for these children,we would take this $30 million and put it into a Grant Pool. This pool will be divided upevenly among all the children enrolled in private schools. The 10,000 children already inprivate schools, plus the 5,000 additional transfers. That would give every child in privateschool a grant worth about $2,000. Right now a $2,000 grant is large enough to pay for100% of a private grammar school's tuition and about $500 for after-school tutoring. Since our program allows parents to pay for qualified after-school tutoring programs ifany money is left-over, private schools will have an incentive to either keep their costs downor offer after-school programs for their students.
A question you did not ask, but which warrants comment upon is, "How does thisprogram effect our public schools?" First, it decreases the over-crowding problem. Rightnow, some of our public schools have as many as 38 children per class, while many of ourprivate schools have a fair amount of excess capacity. Second, since we keep all localproperty tax revenues in the public schools system regardless of how many studentstransfer to private schools, the per-pupil expenditure in the public school system actuallyincreases. We would still get the same $6,000 per child from the State, but our totalcontribution of $78 million in local tax dollars would all remain in the public school system,and be divided by fewer students. That would give us more money to spend per child. Forexample, if 5,000 students transferred from public to private schools, spending wouldincrease from $9,000 per child to over $10,000 per child -- all without increasing state orlocal taxes by one penny.
Everyone would benefit under my proposal. Granted, you might say there is aninflationary impetus because per-pupil spending will increase in each system. But we won'thave to increase our actual total spending by one penny to accommodate this.
Q: What changes have you made or proposed in the area of economic development?A: Economic planning, by definition, is a difficult thing to do. For example, if you readthe Department of Housing and Urban Development's booklet on the HOME loan program(a federally subsidized affordable housing program), you will see that Jersey City isfeatured as a successful model for other cities to follow. But for all the effort that's spenton the HOME program, very little housing actually gets built. Out of the 40,000 propertiesin the city, this program has helped us build maybe a few hundred new housing units.
cheap hotel in Avignon But now let's suppose that I get the streets of Jersey City safe and clean, and assureevery parent in Jersey City that their child will go to a good school, and reduce the taxesthat every homeowner has to pay. What will happen? Business will grow and expand inJersey City, jobs will be created, and the value of our real estate will increase. The marketwill respond to these positive trends and build 2,000 new housing units, not becausegovernment arranges special financing, but because our government is creating anenvironment where people want to live and do business. That's what I would consider tobe a successful economic development strategy.
Q: I'm a volunteer working in a tutoring program in the South Bronx and I want to ask aquestion about illegitimacy. Many analysts say that illegitimacy is driving most of oursocial problems in our inner cities, and I read recently that if trends continue, projectionsshow that the minority illegitimacy rate will be 80% by the year 2000. Do you seeillegitimacy as one of the main driving forces of urban problems, and if so, what can bedone about it?A: I believe the rise in illegitimacy is a by-product of bad government. Its time that werealized that social health, as well as personal fulfillment, arises not only from theelimination of material deprivation, but also from the formation of a social ethic whichaffirms life in spite of circumstances and encourages people to help their neighbors. Unfortunately, many government policies work against the teaching of this wisdom. Ourhealth, education, and welfare policies have ripped the life out of the social institutions --family, community, and church -- which historically taught our children these values andreinforced our spirituality.
I think we could help prevent social problems -- like illegitimacy -- if we empowerthese local organizations to help our young people, rather than depend on help fromWashington. Welfare reform, health care choice, and school choice are at the cutting-edgeof this effort. By empowering families with the financial opportunity to seek services fromtheir family, church, or local community organizations, we will breath new life into theseinstitutions, which have always sought to minister to the material and spiritual needs of itsmembers. This approach is consistent with our pluralistic traditions and our increasingsocial heterogeneity. It will support us as we teach our children our own faith and values,instead of, as is the case today, taxing us to support government programs which onlypropagate one particular ideology.
Q: Would you say that, on balance, the competition between New York City and NewJersey for office space tenants has been a benefit to the region?A: When people think about the recent competition between New York and New Jerseythey assume that New Jersey is giving a lot of special tax breaks to lure businesses acrossthe Hudson. That is an erroneous assumption. But if you were the Mayor of New YorkCity and you had to explain why jobs were leaving, you wouldn't say, "I'm driving themaway with high taxes, crumbling infrastructure, and poor services." Instead, you're morelikely to say, "They're unfairly luring our companies away." I don't want to give specialbreaks to anybody, I want to make life better in Jersey City for everybody.
What is New York going to do in response to our actions? I think they're going totry to increase the quality of life in New York City, and that alone will benefit the entireregion. Mayor Giuliani has taken some positive steps in that direction already, but hedoesn't have a governor, legislature, and city council that is fully behind him. Fortunately,I do. That's why I can move more aggressively on certain reforms. Furthermore, Ihonestly believe that it is the mission of places like Jersey City to make it easier for placeslike New York City to marshall the political will necessary to implement aggressive change. I believe that once the people see a working model they'll expect better results fromgovernment, and their rising expectations will be the catalyst for positive change.