Gavra At Work
That is an assumption that does not hold up logically. Enrollment in public schools should be down significantly, so costs should remain the same or go down. Unless you have specific numbers how public school costs have gone up commensurate with tax intakes (for East Ramapo and Lakewood) I don’t see how this is possible.
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Perhaps now you can begin to understand the frustration we feel.
It isn’t logical, but that doesn’t stop it from happening.
As the public school population in East Ramapo continues to decrease and at the same time more property tax paying families are building homes and not using the public schools, you end up with more money for fewer pupils.
It’s possible because if the legally voted in tax payer representatives decide to eliminate extras from the school budget, items that other districts in the area don’t offer due to the expense, other people are up in arms.
I would also be upset if people who have to pay for things were taking things that I don’t have to pay for away from me.
Right now, if you buy a $500,000 home, your property taxes would be at least $16,500! Could you imagine if everyone would send their children to public school? If the school budget per student would remain the same as it is now, the property taxes for a $500,000 home would be at least $60,000! Obviously not sustainable. How do the surrounding districts, where 77% of the children population attend public school, have lower property taxes?
The answer is, the parents are careful with the budget because they know it comes out of their pocket. In East Ramapo, there is no need to be careful because the public school parents only have to pay a small amount of the budget as they get to share the expense with the non-public school parents.
Expenses are shared while the expenditures aren’t.