Towns tame taxes by keeping children out

Bloomberg News via The Washington Times ^ | January 20, 2007 | Bob Ivry

[Kaslin]

New Jersey towns have figured out a way to sidestep the highest property taxes in the U.S. Keep children out. Educating a child in New Jersey costs an average of $12,567 a year, the most in the nation and more than double the property tax parents typically pay. So local governments have hit upon a way to expand the tax base without the expense of higher enrollment: age-restricted housing.

New Jersey developers have responded by building an estimated one-fifth of the country's adults-only housing, making the state the leader in a national trend spurred by baby boomers seeking new homes after their children move out.

[ClaireSolt]

There is no justification for public schools other than training citizens. But, of course, the public has been squeezed out of its schools by people like union maffia for a long time. There are lots of ways of effectively teaching the three R's more effectively. I suppose you superceed the founders from constitutional law, too.

[ken21]

rancho mirage, ca does just that. the average age is 61 + they don't want any more kids. the mayor said that on the radio.

"Educating a child in New Jersey costs an average of $12,567 a year"

i went into a mcdonald's yesterday + the signs read .99 cents. even the manager didn't know the correct number. that's what $12,567 gets you per year per student these days.

[Mmmike]

They are like a third world nation, believing that corruption is a way of life. How true. I've seen it in spades with the H1-B's at work and my other acquaintances from the Third World. Some of them downright despise the idea of a self-governing republic comprised of responsible people and laugh about it contemptuously.

[Mmmike]

On the receiving end of government education, there is tremendous pressure not to ask the wrong questions about the system doing the "educating." It is the kind of ignorance that suits school best. School would rather be esteemed as An Institution Like No Other, So Broad and Noble Is Its Purpose We Dare Not Identify It as an Institution Having Institutional Characteristics. Many people bow to this nonsense, dutifully declining to ask where school came from or whence it derives justification for its wanton preemption of family and community life and its aggressively alienating people from historically-rooted religion.

[Docbarleypop]

more like 23 pupils at a time! my fiancee is a third grade teacher in a private catholic inner city school. most of the children are there on scholarships from donations by parish. i am always amazed at the level of education she demands out of her students. they are at least two or three grade levels ahead of their public school peers. plus, while per public school student the price tag to the tax payers here in the twin cities is almost 12k, cost of education at her school is something like 4k per student. wake up america!!!

[hilaryrhymeswithrich]

I thought the same thing about NJ until a job relocation brought me here.

I have lived all over the world in very different settings and my little borough of NJ is among my tops...great place to raise kids, nice neighbors, small town America....

[Lizavetta]

Oh boy, just where I've always wanted to retire....New Jersey. Yuck!

You'll change your tune after you see the Jersey countryside. I was there many years ago - rolling hills, green , lots of trees, little quaint towns. Very pretty.

[steve-b]

The real problem is the socialistic financing of the government schools -- they should be paid for by the people who actually use them, not just any warm body in the vicinity.

[smb30]

God bless your future wife. Baruch haShem.

[patton]

Public school Kindergarten in Falls Church, VA, costs $26k, per student, per year. NJ, at $12K and change, is a bunch of pikers.