In response to a post from Martinator, I have put my thoughts in context with his original posting below. Please keep in mind that these are my thoughts alone. I do not speak on behalf of the School Committee.
NOTE: I mention specifics when talking about cuts below. Please keep in mind that the School Committee is in the very early stages of creating a list of considerations. We are only in the brainstorming stage and the fact that something was mentioned only means that it was an idea – it does not mean that it has made a short-list or anything. We are casting a wide net and trying to put all ideas on the table before evaluating those ideas.
Short Term
Everyone in town pays a flat fee for Garbage Pick-up.
Would it be possible (legal) for the town to charge an Education Fee to disengage the funding for education from property taxes?
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BILL:
I’m not sure if charging an education fee is legal, but it is problematic. Our country has a long history of providing free public education. If we start charging for certain aspects of that education, we start to head down a slippery slope of wanting to charge more money for those things and establishing fees for more and more things. The concept of paying for full-day Kindergarten (sort of an example of a user fee) was put on the table at our meeting Tuesday night and it will be discussed further as we try and settle on the things we will cut if we have to.
The Academic User fee idea is similar in nature to “impact fees” and the town lost that lawsuit many years ago so I’m not so sure how well this type of fee would stand up in court. I think it has the potential to create legal issues for us, but it’s worth discussing. That would have to be a Town Council issue, but the School Committee can discuss it first and see if it’s something we want to ask the Council to consider.
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Since Everybody in the town benefits from better schools everybody should pay (property values, lower crime rate, and the fact that in 5-10 years the high school students will be our health care providers...).
Maybe this "flat fee" could be a structured flat fee if people balk at it.
Maybe the "flat fee" could help cover the "predictable" portion of the school budget, or maybe just the "unpredictable" portion (Special Ed).
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BILL:
I agree that better schools benefit all but not necessarily in equal proportion. We need to find a way of sharing the burden without bankrupting our seniors (in particular) or forcing them out of town because they can no longer afford the taxes on their house.
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Long Term
I always tell people that the problem with education in this country it that there is a economic disconnect for the demand for educational services, and the money needed to fund those services. Especially with the Prop 2.5 law, which places and artificial cap on the towns ability to raise revenue. It's a "price control" and throughout history, price controls have been proven to have the opposite effect that is intended. But Prop 2.5 isn't going away anytime soon...
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BILL:
I agree there is a major disconnect in the system and proposition 2.5 is one of the problems that prevents us from balancing the school budget. However, there are other factors that are creating the problems to begin with. If prop 2.5 didn’t exist, the tendency would be to continue to raise taxes to pay the bills without addressing the root cause of the problem and that’s not a sustainable model.
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The town needs to find new ways of raising revenue. Franklin is right on 495, has 2 commuter rail stops for Boston, and is central to Boston, Providence, and Worcester. How can Franklin take advantage of these geographic realities and attract businesses and corporate tax revenue (Does Franklin have a separate corporate tax rate?)
Maybe it's not possible to find new revenue streams.
What about costs? This is hard when the school budget is already, I'm guessing, 80-90% of the town budget. The school budget also seems to be cutting more and more into "meat" and less and less "fat".
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BILL:
Yes we are and we have been cutting “meat” for a while now and it is going to catch up with us. More disturbingly, it’s going to catch up with the kids. Raising revenues is one possibility. However, the risk of a split tax rate is that we lose the corporate tax base altogether if they can easily move to some other town and get a better deal and this has happened. The other aspect to consider is that while it is possible and you may be able to retain the companies, is it fair to the small businesses?
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What about consolidating all the regional schools into a larger school district? Why does it have to be "Town-by-town"?
Franklin and Medway are already sharing resources among the rec departments. I think that goes for the libraries also. Would the scale of a larger school district reduce some administrative costs and make the unpredictable costs more predictable?
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BILL:
It doesn’t have to be town by town and there are regional districts in Massachusetts, but they tend to be west of Worcester. Many other states employ regional schools at a much higher rate than Massachusetts. That could save costs, but it does introduce other problems. If you needed to pass an override, do all towns have to agree? What if one of those towns will never agree? Then you’re playing down to the lowest common denominator and then who wants to partner with that town. The flip side is a problem too. What if the override is based upon a majority of voters from all towns and you have towns that always push for and pass an override? Then you’re living up to (perhaps) the most lavish goals of others. Again, you want out. Consider that we don’t have a common viewpoint on overrides and budget, etc. just within Franklin and then imagine introducing 2 or 3 other towns into the mix. I think it’s an idea worth discussing though and we already do some regionalization, such as Tri-County and some of the special education is “regionalized” and shared with other towns.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts and ideas.
Bill Glynn
Franklin School Committee
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Apparently, the comment exceeds the allowed length, hence I am posting this as a full post in response to Martinator's comment.
