Nothing Personal, It’s Just About Money

Chapters are being written almost weekly in this county’s latest tell-all novel, “The Summer of Our Discontent.” The subtitle is “How Thorough and Efficient?” If you guessed the sure-to-be best seller focuses on education you are correct. It will not be in print for quite a while; at least until the smoke clears, and one party is declared winner, if there is one. That may be farther than summer is from winter.
It’s a sad novel, to be sure, one that will bring a tear to any level-headed reader who may see it as a reinvention of the Civil War on a more local level. As the American Civil War had many causes, there are many subplots in “The Summer of Our Discontent.”
Part of the book takes place on Cape Island, the other part north of there. Uniting the factions is something called the Lower Cape May Regional School District.
As the Civil War started with the Confederates’ April 12-14, 1861 shelling of Fort Sumter in Charleston, S.C. harbor, the first shot fired in the latest novel took place in Cape May on July 2. That is when Cape May City Council passed a resolution that asked County Executive Superintendent Richard Stepura to investigate the feasibility of the city withdrawing from the regional district.
It’s not quite as monumental as the Declaration of Independence, but it would almost have the same effect, but don’t draw any conclusions yet. As there were underlying reasons why there was a Revolutionary War and later a Civil War, one of the chief motivating factors for Cape May’s action is purely monetary. It is paying its “fair” share to send pupils to the regional district from sixth to 12th grades. The cost for each Cape May pupil is a staggering $79,977.
Regardless of which side of a border one calls home, the idea of paying that much to send one pupil to school for a year is unconscionable. Just for comparison, the price is $7,663 per student for Lower Township, and $30,493 per student for West Cape May. While it’s not any regional district, strictly for comparison, Middle Township School District’s cost per pupil is $12,211 for the next school year.
Let’s be clear on one thing, Cape May is satisfied with the education provided by the regional district. It is the price tag that comes with those textbooks and course materials that is driving it to serious action.
It becomes painfully clear that if anyone were elected to represent Cape May City taxpayers, they would be remiss in fiduciary obligation to those who elected them if they sat idly and let the school fee meter keep spinning upward. Of course they took action, they had to do so, and it wasn’t taken on whim, but after a very long time, over two years.
North of Cape Island’s border, Lower Township Council was incensed, and that, too, would be expected of anyone voted to represent the taxpayers of that municipality. It would not have been wise for Mayor Michael Beck to have a blood pressure check after learning of Cape May Council’s action. Breathe deeply, Mayor.
The issue has made the sweltering summer a triple-digit scorcher for all parties. Imagine their citizens, who sit at home and gasp when they read the tax bill, or fret what the next one might contain.
This is where, I firmly believe, the good graces of Sen. Jeff Van Drew and other state legislators ought to be enlisted. The problem of school funding extends far beyond Lower Township and Cape May. It goes 97 miles north to roost under the Capitol’s golden dome in Trenton. That is where change must take place, not in Cape May or Villas.
The state Supreme Court passed its “thorough and efficient” decree that an equal education must be provided to every New Jersey school pupil, regardless of a municipality’s ability to pay. When it did so it left out one part of the formula: state funding. To this day school boards wince at new rules that cost more, but less is provided by the state.
So, we are left to write more chapters in the novel how citizens are starting to throw brickbats across the border, not unlike the divisiveness that fueled the Blue and the Gray. It did nothing to calm the angst of Lower Township solons when Cape May Councilman Jack Wichterman was quoted as saying “I couldn’t give a damn about the people in Lower, I’m working for the people in the City of Cape May.”
Be realistic, he was looking out for his city’s taxpayers. Crass perhaps, but often the truth hurts, and those who utter it are castigated. Once again, he was doing the job he was elected to do, and not serve those outside city limits. As Congress is to mediate inter-state squabbles, so the state must enter this regional funding frey.
I find it troubling in this age of instant communications, both sides claim there has been no contact whatsoever with the other regarding this most delicate issue. Has an Oriental grip overtaken the honorables on both sides of the border, and no one wants to “lose face” by picking up the telephone and punching in seven numbers? Is it going to take this editor to make a conference call to get the brass talking?
Regional districts are sticky wickets when it comes to who pays the freight. Beck told me Cape May has known all along what was coming. Property values went somewhere north of the Milky Way, middle-class working families couldn’t afford to stay, and off they went, some to less costly Lower Township. Now they want to dump their bills on the backs of Lower Township. I can see his point too.
Come on, senator, these folks need state help now, not next year. Can the wheels start turning in Trenton and some educational and financial gurus get working on how to take this financial 800-pound gorilla from the backs of regional neighbors?
Cape May Mayor Edward Mahaney has expressed his desire to work with all parties involved. So do I have to make that conference call?
“Communication is always the best means of resolving a problem or an issue and in this case I think it would be fruitful if the Township of Lower’s governing body, the City of Cape May’s governing body, the City of Cape May’s Board of Education, and the Lower Regional Board of Education and the Lower Township Board of Education sat down and discussed this issue and tried to resolve it at the lowest possible level – the local level,” said Mahaney. “I think it’s always better to resolve issues amicably through negotiations and discussions rather than through the court system.”
Maybe the novel needs a new title. Let’s try “The Long Hot Summer of Our Discontent.”