Sasse: Vote Questions If Higher Taxes Result In Better Schools

Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Gary Sasse, GoLocalProv MINDSETTER

The bellwether election this year was not the gubernatorial contests in either New Jersey or Virginia. Rather it was the overwhelming defeat of Amendment 66 in Colorado. Voters in the Centennial State took a sledgehammer to this school and tax reform ballot initiative and defeated it by a two to one margin.

Amendment 66 was the focus of progressives nationwide. Proponents raised $10 million to promote its passage. This included $1 million each from the Gates Foundation and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. It was aggressively supported by the Governor, the Democratic controlled legislature, teacher unions and others in the educational establishment.

Amendment 66 asked Colorado voters to approve an income tax increase to finance what arguably would have been the most comprehensive school reform program in recent memory.

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This ballot initiative would have increased the State’s flat income tax rate of 4.6% to 5.0% for residents with taxable incomes below $75,000, and to 5.9% for those with taxable incomes above $75,000. The cost to the average Colorado family from this tax increase was estimated to total $133 per year. By way of comparison, Rhode Island’s top income tax rate is 5.99% for incomes over $133,250.

The new revenue stream would have been dedicated to fund a variety of educational programs. These included: preschool activities, full-day kindergartens, English –language learners programs, state- of- the -art classroom technology as well as locally determined innovations. It also promised greater funding for charter schools and initiatives to foster school accountability and effectiveness. The cost for this wish list was $950 million.

The landslide rejection of this measure contains an important teaching moment for Rhode Island’s policy makers, educators, business leaders and public sector unions.

The primary lesson to gleam is that most voters did not believe that spending more money on education would automatically translate into better student performance. This should resonate in the Ocean State where there is an achievement-expenditure deficit. According to the National Education Association, in 2012 Rhode Island’s K-12 spending per enrolled student ranked fifth highest in the United States--54% above the national average. At the same time Rhode Island students’ scores on the “Nations Report Card“, approximated the US average. The Providence Journal reported, “According to National Assessment of Educational Progress, however, Rhode Island’s 2013 scores are not considered significantly different from the national average, except in fourth grade reading.” While there have been student proficiency gains, there is still room for improvement. Since 2011 the achievement gap for reading between majority and minority fourth graders grew from 20 to 30 points. Rhode Island also continues to trail the other New England states in nearly every test category. There certainly is not parity between what Rhode Islanders invest in education and student performance.

The second lesson is the need to set realistic and limited priorities. Amendment 66 did not set priorities by focusing on the most critical needs of Colorado’s students. In making public policy successful changes generally happen in small wins. Remember that you eat an elephant one bite at a time.

A third lesson is the need to get buy-in from the business community. This did not happen in Colorado’s failed attempt to enact Amendment 66. The business community appeared to be more interested in opposing an income tax increase than investing in children. Business organizations did not speak with one voice. Some major business groups did not take a position while others either supported or opposed the education ballot question.

What position would the Ocean State’s business leaders take if a governor proposed to increase the state income tax by one half of a percent on taxable incomes over $500,000 to help close the performance gap in our inner cities? Their reaction could speak volumes about corporate responsibility.

The school reform effort also ran aground because of a growing lack of confidence in our democratic institutions. Events beyond Colorado’s borders made it difficult to enact new and expansive government programs. The shutdown of the federal government and the fiasco known as ObamaCare have contributed to voter cynicism about the ability of government at all levels to be part of the solution. In Rhode Island a Brown University poll reported that 63% believe that the State is headed in the wrong direction. Timing is an important tactical consideration when proposing transformational changes in public policy.

Finally, the Amendment 66 experience warns us to be cautious about distributional politics. Aligned with Amendment 66 was a plan to modify the school funding mechanism. While equitable school funding should be a state constitutional right, the New York Times noted that “both Democrats and Republicans were leery of raising their own taxes to finance struggling schools in poorer districts.”

Rhode Island may under-perform in the 21^st century economy unless it commits resources to quality programs aimed at giving our future workforce the tools necessary to succeed. Learning from the Amendment 66 debacle will require the following:

• Leadership that sets a limited number of priorities that are focused on transparent performance standards and measurable results,
• Leadership that can organize disparate special interests to collectively solve problems by reaching compromises,
• Private sector institutions that are not wedded to the past and will invest in transformational changes, not just talk about them.

Perhaps most importantly we must recognize that our political process has evolved into a denial of our problems thereby making the evasion of remedies easier. In 2014 we must elect a governor and other leaders who will break this paradigm. As Abraham Lincoln so aptly said; “The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present.”

Gary Sasse is Founding Director of the Hassenfeld Institute for Public Leadership at Bryant University. He is the former Executive Director Rhode Island Public Expenditure and Director of the Departments of Administration and Revenue.

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