Regional Referendum Looms, Debate Continues

CAPE MAY – Sixty years have passed since overcrowding at Cape May City High School led to the formation of a regional school system for the communities of Cape May, West Cape May, and Lower Township.
Right from the start, a certain level of contention characterized the endeavor. A newly-organized consolidated school commission, with three members from Lower Township and one each from Cape May City and West Cape May rejected a number of proposed school sites not in Lower Township.
It took several public votes and a dozen meetings to finally approve Bennett Farm in Erma where the new regional high school opened in January 1961.
With the original funding for the regional system based on enrolled students from each municipality, the arrangement continued in relative peace until the mid-1970s. At that point, the funding formula was changed by the state in response to a series of court cases concerning low levels of funding for school systems in socio-economically disadvantaged areas.
The new formula, based on property values in the participating municipalities, fundamentally changed the economics of the relationship in the Lower Cape May Regional (LCMR) district. The end result is that Cape May City, with the area’s highest average property values, pays about 35 percent of the funding for the regional system while sending only 5 percent of its students.
To some that is an economic relationship that defies common sense and raises questions of fairness in the tax burden. For others the burden is appropriately spread based on ability to pay, with the real goal being a good education for all citizens in the larger community that makes up the lower cape.
The Aug. 19 Cape May City council meeting was a brief, routine affair that reached the agenda’s end in 20 minutes. The public portion of the meeting which followed was almost exclusively about the issue of school funding.
After a failed attempt to get legislative action to change the funding formula 10 years ago, Cape May City took up the issue again in the last couple of years but with a different end game in sight.
The current council has pursued every avenue of potential change to the current arrangement with little real expectation of success.
Deputy Mayor Jack Wichterman, who will leave the council at the end of his term this fall, has made this his signature issue. He has repeatedly stated that the actions of council are all part of a process aimed eventually at getting the issue into the courts rather than the Legislature.
It is only when the issue is before the courts that Cape May City feels there is a chance of success in getting the formula changed or at least having the amount paid by the city reduced.
Wichterman also pointed out that when the state changed the funding formula, there was no similar change to the representation on the school board. Cape May City, Wichterman said, “still has only one member on the board. We can’t even get a motion seconded for a vote.”
Past council meetings have seen taxpayers speak in favor of the actions the city is pursuing, but this most recent meeting saw a handful of citizens raise concerns that the pursuit of a change in the funding formula is costing too much, is creating bad blood in the larger community and negative publicity for the city, and that the returns, even if successful, do not warrant the effort.
On the other hand, council was also urged to make note of the fact that a significant proportion of the students from the city that enter the regional system are from the Coast Guard base, not directly from taxpaying residents of the city.
Jo Tolley, a retired past member of the local school board, also argued that the city had a responsibility to carry the burden of a greater share in the funding. “Cape May County is among the poorest counties in the state,” Tolley said. “We are fortunate in Cape May City and ought to pay our fair share,” she added.
Tolley also pointed to the fact that many of the families in the surrounding regional communities work in Cape May’s tourist industry for relatively low wages before returning to municipalities like Lower Township.
The result of any change in the formula that reduces the city’s burden will be less money for the school district or an increase in the school tax in the other participating municipalities.
For some a change in the formula meets the definition of fairness. For others, fairness dictates that the city continues to pay a higher proportion of the school funding.
Since the latest step in this long process is an upcoming referendum, a clearer picture of public sentiment may emerge. Wichterman has repeatedly said that he expects the city to lose in the referendum.
“We only have 2,000 voters in Cape May City,” he noted. However, the result of how those 2,000 voters express themselves in that referendum may give everyone a sense of how the citizens of Cape May define fairness. Will they side with the citizens who have praised the actions of the council or with the taxpayers who indicate the effort should be stopped?
One thing is certain. The contention over this issue will continue for the present. As voters wait for the results of the referendum yet to be scheduled, the present fight is over who should pay for it.
To contact Vince Conti, email vconti@cmcherald.com.