Tax Pensions : A Solution To The Public Pension Crisis

Since last spring, Philadelphia school district leaders have been sounding the alarm about this year’s fiscal budget. Even after months of discussions and headlines, schools have opened with fewer resources than last year. On March 28th the School Reform Commission approved a lump sum budget which showed a need for an additional $220 million in revenue in order to provide schools with same resources as the “wholly insufficient” 2013-14 school year (McCorry). There will be many inadequate funding impacts on the quality of the education. Classroom resources would be stripped to untenable levels. The district would reduce as much as $2.2 million funding to the districts’ multiple pathways to graduation program which affects estimated 300 students. Another $1.5 million could be reduced from the elimination of preparation and professional development time for teachers at the district’s high needs promise academies. The district’s building maintenance budget could have reduction in amount of $9.6 million. Schools will be cleaned less frequently as a result. Building maintenance will also be curtailed as a result. District’s school police budget could also have reduction in amount of $2.4 million. School police officer vacancies will be unfilled, leaving an additional 27 elementary schools to share an officer.

In taking a brief look at the Oklahoma education system, one need not look far before issues of significant underfunding and understaffing come directly into view. Many different proposals regarding what Oklahoma needs to do to resolve this problem have been suggested in the past, but very few of these proposals outline an answer regarding how these fixes will be implemented. How Oklahoma's educational system can increase the effectiveness of its limited funding is something that can be addressed with simple cost-effective steps and strategies that have proven their effectiveness in other states. Additionally, the issue of understaffing can be looked at from a fresh perspective in order to understand what the Oklahoma education system can do to bring in new teachers and keep these teachers. Finally, in joining with national-level movements and interest groups such as the National Education Association which can help with budgetary issues and Teach for America which can help to bring in new, trained and enthusiastic teachers into areas of Oklahoma that have seen poor performance from students in the past.

No. Kentucky’s General Assembly does not provide a proper and adequate education for all children of the commonwealth. It was found that school districts servicing poorer communities were implementing substantially different curriculums than wealthier districts. These differences in mathematics, science and fine arts contributed to lower student performances in economically poorer school. 2. No. Kentucky’s General Assembly does not ensure its school system adheres to the constitutional mandates of Section 183. With Kentucky’s school system lacking uniformity, poorer districts were deprived of educational opportunities provided to wealthier districts. Receiving fewer financial resources, substantial noticeable differences in district curriculums, and higher student-teacher ratios, students from poorer districts were unfairly disadvantaged in receiving inadequate and inferior educations. 3. No. Kentucky’s Minimum Foundation and Power Equalization Programs do not equally distribute financial resources to all districts throughout the state. Although the per-capita income for Kentucky is low, the state made no attempts to ensure tax efforts were evenly spread among poor and wealthy districts. 4. No. Kentucky’s school systems do not meet Section 183’s standard or efficiency? Kentucky’s Constitution, Section 183 states “a system of common schools must be efficient”. With Kentucky’s students ranking in the lower 20 – 25% in most academic categories

This paper will effectively detail the issues surrounding policy as it pertains to teacher reform for New Jersey Tenure Laws. I will discuss why this new reform has made it impossible to terminate non-effective teachers because of the protection that TEACHNJ provides. I will also discuss inaccuracies as it pertains to accountability and transparency under the new tenure laws. Lastly, I will discuss the teacher rating system and evaluation system that rates teachers in four categories, from highly effective to ineffective. Teacher evaluations would be based on measures of student learning, such as improvement of state test scores, student work, and other practices linked to student achievement. The New Jersey Education Association has proposed streamlining the legal process for removing teachers, but has adamantly defended the basic job protection of tenure, saying it prevents unfair dismissal, favoritism and attempts to save money by firing expensive veterans. The state’s largest teacher’s union also vehemently opposes judging teachers largely on test scores, saying that doing so penalizes teachers with the most difficult students, and that the data is unreliable. Teachers are fearful of losing their jobs if they don’t raise test scores, teachers will redouble their test-preparation efforts, and quality instruction will be sacrificed,” NJEA President Barbara Keshishian said in a statement. “Parents should be alarmed and dismayed at this proposal.” (Brody)

For an extended period, state and local policymakers and labor unions ignored as the growing public pension obligations became an increasingly fiscal burden. The pension problem was enormous and associated with irresponsible financial practices connected to defined benefit pension plans (Thompson, 1980). Following this, the state of California and its local government have a problem of unfunded public pension liabilities that was estimated to be around $583 billion. Because of this, as Lu and Otto (2003) claim, several cities in the state have had a difficult duty of balancing budgets in a balanced way to the public employees and taxpayers, while continuing to provide public services to the

The United States deficit, surplus, and debt will always have an impact on taxpayers. In the state of high deficit the government seeks ways to cut and save money for debt payment. The government does this by pulling funding from programs that have little government impact. Increasing taxes also supplies the government with extra income. In addition to the reduction or elimination of certain tax credits, the government analyzes school funding for cost effectiveness. Each step the government takes has a trickling effect on taxpayer’s dollar.

As mentioned by Thompson (2010), in the Associated Press, “Lawmakers bridged a $19 billion shortfall, more than 20 percent of the $87.5 billion general fund spending plan”. This shows that the state was heading towards a financial crisis and more deficit creation. Moreover, Thompson (2010), in the Associated Press also points out that “It includes no tax or fee increases but uses a combination of cuts, funding shifts, delayed corporate tax breaks and assumptions about money the state hopes to receive”. The budget gave rise to other dependent costs such as delayed tax refunds. It was uncertain that the State will receive the required funds from the federal government to ensure that the important programs will function the way it used to be until the funds are received.

Spending has become important because of the debt that the state is in right now ("TPPF Releases...). This issue would be a social responsibility, because one of the recommendations says that the state needs to raise taxes to pay its debt, which will include people paying them (Foundation). Higher education affordability is another issue that is argued. The cost of education is unpayable, this would be a personal responsibility. If someone decides to go to college and do the revenue bond it is the person’s choice (Foundation).

For an extended period, state and local policymakers and labor unions ignored the growing public pension obligations as they became an increasing fiscal burden. The pension problem was enormous and associated with irresponsible financial practices connected to defined benefit pension plans (Thompson, 1980, 118). Following this, the state of California and its local governments have a problem of underfunded and unfunded public pension liabilities that was estimated to be around $583 billion (Nava & Christensen, 2015, 1). Despite the fact that the implementation of PEPRA was significant, its impact will be minimal over an extended period, and it has many weaknesses that include failure to address the currently underfunded pension liability

Oklahoma as of today is ranked 49th nationally in per-pupil expenditures and ranked 48th in teacher pay (Klein 2). Putting Oklahoma as one of the worst states to be educated in the United States. “Oklahoma is consistently ranked near the bottom for education funding and teacher pay” (“Investing In Education Is Key For Growth And Job Creation” 3). When there are state cuts that need to be made, the departments of education are one of the first that usually tend to suffer. Since the 2008 economic crisis, Oklahoma has continued to cut the budget for education; even though the economy has since then gotten better (Perry). Budget cuts in education affect all parts of the education process for the students. “Some school districts have ordered teacher layoffs and shorter sessions” (“Oklahoma Makes the Poor Poorer” par 4).Schools are now struggling to keep their heads above water. Each year from the budget cutting, schools have had to lay off teachers, cut entire programs, and have limited resources used to educate the students. Even the teachers’ retirement system is suffering, being one of the top poorly funded pension programs nationally (Ash par 3). Seeing as that the schools have to cut down classes and programs, administration has had no other choice than to increase class size, overwhelming teachers tremendously. “Oklahoma has 1,500 fewer classroom teachers and 40,000 more students since 2008-2009” (“Investing In Education Is Key For Growth

Over the next five years, Davenport Schools are facing a $20 million cut from its budget. For the 2018-2019 school year alone, the school board needs to find a way to cut $6 million from the budget. By increasing class sizes in the intermediate and high school levels and reducing staff, they are looking to balance budget cuts. The reduction of staff will not occur through “pink slips,” but with the help of things such as early retirement incentives. At Wood Intermediate, five music teachers are retiring with the assistance of early retirement incentives. While having to cut such a hefty load from the budget, Tate wants to avoid cutting anything that takes away from students’

Gradually, the Social Security Administration has grappled to accommodate a host of novel demographic trends, namely those impacting the retirement sector of the American population. Continuously, with advances in the medical realm, the senior population is steadily extending its lifespan, and thus, retirement altogether, introducing a wealth of new economic considerations. As human longevity increases, the Social Security system proves increasingly unsustainable, specifically in the pension department-among other areas. As workforce involvement declines with age, the budgetary deficit and low supplementary funding plague the social security system. Unless crucial economic reforms are made, the present rate of pension disbursement will

In today’s economic environment even the wealthiest states and districts are having to cut funding for education, while districts which were already teetering on the edge are now in an even worse position. In some schools children have to face not having enough books, paper for copies, severe overcrowding,

In addition, insufficient funding of schools along with quality teachers that are retiring are some of the problems we encounter in the education system. In some parts of the United States, there is a lack of adequate access to materials for reading and writing due to budget constraints. In Allen D. Kanner’s article, “Today’s Class Brought to You By…” he mentioned that with the baby boomers retiring, and a high turnover among new teachers, who are asked to teach subjects they are not properly trained for, are causing difficult classroom situations (280). Similarly, Governor Jerry Brown’s statement last January 11 pointed out that K-12 education has ‘borne the brunt’ of the state’s budget cuts with more than $18 billion in cuts over the last three years. This resulted in larger class sizes, programs are cut, and over 30,000 educators laid off. These teachers are very valuable in our society because they provide our youth with the knowledge and social experiences that they will use to better their future and the future of the entire world. As a student, I have suffered the consequences of triple digit fee increases and the lack of available classes offered. The high cost of education has put the burden not only on the students, and many of their parents, but educators, as

Revenue that comes from state income tax is said to be progressive, that is because state taxes fall differently on different taxpayers depending on the taxpayer’s income level. Typically, the percentage of income tax paid rises as the taxpayer’s income does, thus the reason they are progressive. The opposite is true for sales tax revenue. These taxes are regressive because regardless the taxpayer’s income, tax rates remain constant. This is sometimes a disadvantage for poorer taxpayers because they have to spend more of their income on what they need (Sims, 2004). The allocation of these funds for elementary and