When school officials feel constrained to an existing tax expense paradigm (which includes a disastrously low school tax levy coinciding with state aid cuts), the process becomes about "austerity" and "doing more with less." This results in cutting services (eg laying off teachers, slashing supplies budgets) to "balance the budget" within a palatable tax expense paradigm for residents.

But a second factor exists, too: Jersey City's school tax levy is much smaller, as a starting base, then the city levy. In 2018, public schools received only 24% of local property tax dollars, or $124 million. The city, however, received 48% of local tax dollars, or $247 million.

When we look at the public spending habits of Jersey City as a whole, the city has a clear advantage in terms of owning the largest share of the tax funding pie.

For the district to claim a larger share of the property tax pie, the city must either (a) give up some of its "piece" of funding (ie cut spending) and/or (b) grow the pie itself (which can happen via tax base growth and/or an overall tax rate hike). Either way, it is the BOE, not the city, that must fight against the status quo, to claim more tax dollars. On this front, the BOE - both the administration and the elected trustees - need public support to help in that fight.

This is an uphill battle for funding, as many parents and public schools stakeholders have learned in the past year. In a real sense, this is about disrupting the existing paradigm, and forcing a new paradigm to take shape.