蜜桃影视

鈥淢y adjusted gross income is $28,000. I can鈥檛 support a family on that,鈥� said , a Spanish teacher for 17 years and a finalist for Oklahoma Teacher of the Year. No wonder Oklahoma teachers went on strike: The state ranks 49th in the nation in teacher pay. Teachers in other states with low pay 鈥� West Virginia (48th), Arizona (43rd), Kentucky (26th) 鈥� are joining their colleagues in walkouts, with national media following the story closely.

But here鈥檚 one strike I bet you haven鈥檛 heard of: On March 16, thousands of teachers in Jersey City, New Jersey鈥檚 second-largest municipality, walked off the job to protest an unresolved contract as loudspeakers blared Aretha Franklin鈥檚 鈥淩espect鈥� and strikers taunted substitute teachers walking into the district鈥檚 26 schools.

Although the theatrics were brief, their consequences will be long 鈥� New Jersey鈥檚 589 other school districts now find themselves faced with a budget-busting precedent.

The Jersey City strike lasted only a day because the school board folded like an omelet and agreed to a contract that includes a retroactive 3.5 percent pay hike for the current year and a 2.75 percent increase for next year. The raises themselves are just another occasion for tax-poor New Jerseyans to roll their eyes: a little over average for union settlements, in defiance of New Jersey鈥檚 2 percent tax increase cap. Whatever. Fuggedaboutit.

But what鈥檚 more worrisome are the stipends the district agreed to provide to partially cover teachers鈥� health insurance premiums: 1.75 percent of salaries for individuals, 2 percent of salaries for couples, and 2.25 percent for families. In Jersey City, these stipends not only drain a district with a pre-strike budget gap of $71 million; they also undermine a statewide law that helps school districts remain solvent 鈥� because in New Jersey, once one school board makes a concession, the teachers union demands that others follow suit. And they usually do.

But this is Jersey City, and it may not care. Let me explain.

If Marshall worked in Jersey City, she鈥檇 be making a year instead of $28,000 鈥� and that鈥檚 before the newly negotiated raises. Unlike, say, Arizona, New Jersey ranks sixth in the nation in teacher salaries 鈥� and Jersey City鈥檚 are atypically high. Now, they鈥檝e been forced even higher, and given the union鈥檚 history, they鈥檙e probably only the first domino to fall.

Why? To appreciate the ramifications of the settlement, you need to understand two factors: first, New Jersey鈥檚 history of school funding; and second, a 2011 law called Chapter 78 that reformed state health care and pension premium contributions for public employees.

New Jersey used to fund its schools almost entirely through local property tax revenue. Rich towns had rich school districts and poor towns had poor ones. But in 1981, Education Law Center sued on behalf of 20 children from poor urban districts, charging that the discrepancies in funding violated the state constitution鈥檚 promise of a 鈥渢horough and effective鈥� education system. Eventually, the court ruled that 28 (later 31) districts were entitled to extra state funding to provide some semblance of educational equity, and that per-pupil funding in these poor districts had to be no less than per-pupil funding in rich ones.

Jersey City is one of these 31 . But here鈥檚 the thing: Demographics can change. While Jersey City isn鈥檛 rich 鈥� 71 percent of its students still qualify for free or reduced-priced school lunch 鈥� it now boasts a waterfront that locals refer to as Wall Street West, where two-bedroom . Yet that Abbott designation, as well as the legislature鈥檚 inability to enact necessary change (example: reforming the state pension system, currently underwater), allows wealthy Jersey City residents to bypass fair contributions to school funding.

And so the toddlers of those West Wall Streeters get free full-day preschool and the state pays for all school facilities needs. Property taxes are minuscule relative to a state with the highest property taxes in the country because the state kicks in of the district鈥檚 $580 million budget. Total per-pupil annual spending is . Meanwhile, a long list of underfunded districts 鈥� which didn鈥檛 qualify for Abbott back in the day but surely would now if the program weren鈥檛 frozen at 31 鈥� look resentfully at Jersey City, the most overfunded district in the state. No free preschool for their (poorer) kids. No free facilities aid for their (crumbling) buildings. No 鈥淎djustment Aid鈥� for their (bare-bones) budgets.

The Abbott rulings are obsolete. Everyone knows this. Yet subsequent attempts to fix chronic inequity 鈥� the most recent being the 2008 School Funding Reform Act 鈥� failed to take hold because the state is broke. Gov. Phil Murphy鈥檚 promise to the teachers union to fully fund the act, for example, would add over $2 billion to state school aid allocations (the entire annual state budget is $37.4 billion), which could be raised only through tax increases in an overly taxed state that .

Now let鈥檚 look at factor number two, infamous .

This bipartisan pension and health benefits reform bill was passed in 2011. Previously, public employees had paid 1.5 percent of their health care premiums and local taxpayers ponied up the rest, about $25,000 per teacher for gold-plated health care plans. The new law, which took effect once the contracts then in effect expired, tied employee contributions to salaries 鈥� the more you make, the more you contribute 鈥� on a scale of 3 percent to 35 percent phased in over four years. Now that the phase-in period is over, health care premium contributions are again negotiable; but only, the , at a district鈥檚 fiscal peril, because after four years, those higher contributions are solidly baked into school budgets. Lowering contributions would require boards to make big cuts in instructional services, primarily through layoffs.

But in Jersey City, the five school board members who voted 鈥測es鈥� don鈥檛 care. Courtesy of the obsolete Abbott rulings, most of the city鈥檚 school funding comes from the state. Local control renders individual districts blind to the law of unintended consequences and their impact on other districts.

Hence, , an architect of Chapter 78, booms that the Jersey City School Board 鈥渨rote a blank check that taxpayers in every other school district in New Jersey are going to have to reach into their pockets to pay.鈥� The polled readers on whether the contract is 鈥渋rresponsible.鈥� A new group called haunts the statehouse. The lone dissenter on the Jersey City School Board, , called the contract 鈥渘ot grounded in fiscal reality,鈥� adding that it sends 鈥渢he wrong signal to our educators when we prioritize hundreds of jobs that could be lost鈥� (the district estimates about 300 layoffs to pay for the new contract) and 鈥渢he wrong signal to our students and families, who will lose the most of all when resources they need are no longer there.鈥�

If this were Oklahoma or West Virginia or Arizona or Kentucky, the outcome of this short-lived strike would be a cause for celebration. Yet few who value fiscal solvency in the Garden State are throwing confetti.

The Jersey City board鈥檚 Chapter 78 cop-out threatens to infect all New Jersey school districts. The only cure is a consensus among other school boards to quarantine the concession, label it an ill-conceived anomaly, and respect state residents鈥� household budgets as well as district ones.

Where鈥檚 Aretha Franklin when you need her?

Laura Waters writes about education policy and politics at NJ Left Behind, New York School Talk, Education Post, and other publications. She just finished serving 12 years on her local school board in Lawrence, New Jersey, and was president for nine of those years.

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