This is going to be the first in a series of guest posts about issues in Norwalk. yourCT.com is a non-partisan site dedicated to airing all sides of an issue. That can’t happen without valuable contributions from our readers.
BET OP-Ed
By Michael W. Lyons
As a member of the Board of Estimate, a former member of the Common Council, and a parent of three children who are in or have come through our public schools, I know how important our school system is to our city. I’m the former chair of the Marvin School Council, and my wife Elizabeth is now Marvin School PTO Co-President, after serving nine years on the Board of Education. We’ve put in years of volunteer service to the schools; we know them from the inside. We know excellent teachers and other dedicated staff who’ve done a good job educating our children.
But of course, as a Board of Estimate (BET) member my job isn’t limited to looking at the school budget. I and my fellow BET members also have to budget for Police, Fire, DPW, Recreation and Parks, and myriad other departments and grant recipients. And we have to do so under an over-riding guideline – what can our taxpayers afford? To “fully fund†all budget requests (as we are regularly asked to do), would leave this city with 10-12% annual tax increases. Such increases would double our tax burden every 6-8 years. We would in short order have to raise taxes so high that this middle-income city would become unaffordable.
So we have to find a middle ground. We have to set budgets that get the city’s goals accomplished as best we can without creating a crushing tax burden.
I. The School Budget in Context. This article will not address the specifics of our largest 2007 budget component – the school budget – but will rather try to place it in context. We are often told that Norwalk doesn’t support its schools with enough funding, or that there will be “devastating†consequences if the school budget isn’t “fully†funded. So I will address two issues: 1 – Are we underfunding our schools – do we stack up poorly against other towns in our financial support for education? 2 – Are we undertaxed – are we taxing our citizens less than other towns are and thereby short-changing our schools? The facts show that the answers to both these questions are “Noâ€.
II. Are we underfunding our schools?
A. Norwalk (all in) spends 60% of its budget on its schools — up from 43% in 1991. That is an remarkable shift of 17% of the municipal budget away from City services and into the schools.
B. Our per pupil spending (direct) is $12,453 per year. Only Stamford in our DRG (the group of Connecticut cities with comparable demographics to Norwalk’s) is higher (at $13,328). Stamford’s spending, however, is covered by a massive commercial tax base ($18,977 commercial assessed value per capita vs. $8,515 per capita in Norwalk). Per capita school spending in Norwalk is the highest in the DRG ($1,590 vs. Stamford’s $1,552).
C. Norwalk spends $1,704 per pupil more (in direct spending) than the State average.
D. When you factor in the cost of ‘off-budget’ support for the schools in our budget (including debt service), our per pupil spending rises to $13,845 per year. We on the BET have tentatively approved adding $5.2 million to the school budget this year; this will add $486 to per pupil spending ($5.2 million / 10,689 students projected for next year). That would bring us to $12,939 per pupil in direct spending. Indirect spending is about $1,400 per pupil, so the total spent per pupil will rise to at least $14,339 per year. That is not a short-changing of our school system; it is, in fact, one of the very highest spending levels in the entire State of Connecticut.
E. Norwalk continues to spend a good deal more on special education than comparable cities. We spend $20,025 per special ed student per year, compared to $18,326 in Stamford and $16,048 in Danbury. If we spent at the same per pupil rate as Stamford’s we could save $2.13 million per year; if at the same rate as Danbury, we could save $4.98 million per year.
F. Over the last 10 years, spending on the City side of the budget has increased by $16.6 million (a total increase of 22%). During the same period, spending on the schools has increased by $45.6 million, a 50.3% increase (though enrollment in the schools over that period only increased by 3/4 of 1% (from 10,703 to 10,782). Inflation over the same time frame was 27.2%. This means that corrected for inflation, City spending actually dropped by 5.2% in real dollars, and schools spending increased by 28.3% in real dollars (with a 3/4 of 1% enrollment increase).
G. In the peak year of the baby boom bubble (1976), Norwalk’s schools had 15,676 students and 708 teachers (a student/teacher ratio of 22.14). We now have 10,689 students and 866 teachers, a 12.34 student/teacher ratio. That is an astounding reduction of the ratio (a 44% drop). In fact, the student/teacher ratio has dropped 11% just since 2003 (from 13.83 to 12.34)! Admittedly not all of these teachers are “classroom†teachers (may fill support functions); but the fact remains that we have added many more teachers as the student population has dropped.
H. Norwalk spends $1,454 per pupil more than the State average on salaries and benefits for school employees. This is caused in large part by the fact that average teacher salaries in Norwalk ($74,095) are the 3rd highest in the State (after #1 Easton/Redding and #2 Greenwich). Our average pay is $12,163 higher than the State average ($61,932) (i.e., 19.6% higher). We pay substantially higher salaries than Stamford, Danbury, Westport, Wilton, New Canaan or Darien — and 158 other towns and regional districts as well. Norwalk ranks 54th in the State in per capita income, but 3rd in the State in teacher salaries.
I. Norwalk ranks 9th in the State in average pay for our administrators (again, even though we only rank 54th in the State in per capita income). The State average administrator pay is $101,435. Norwalk’s average is $116,163, 14.5% above the State average. While its true that higher salaries are generally found in Fairfield County, we still pay higher than Stamford, Danbury — and even Westport. So while we may be in the average range for number of administrators, we are up near the top in pay for administrators.
Conclusion? Even with “only†the $5.2 million increase in the school budget we are proposing this year, Norwalk’s schools will still be at the very top of the State in total spending, teacher and administrator salaries, and employee benefits. And that’s true even if we don’t factor in the tens of millions of dollars the city is spending on the schools reconstruction projects now under way.
III. Are we undertaxed – are we taxing our citizens less than other towns are and thereby short-changing our schools?
A. Per capita school spending in Norwalk as a percentage of per capita income is higher than Stamford’s (5.0% Norwalk, 4.44% in Stamford). So the direct tax impact of our schools on our taxpayers is already high and growing.
B. Our equalized mil rate of 12.72 is 21% higher than Stamford’s (10.50), and is also much higher than the tax rates in the surrounding towns (Wilton (12.16), Westport (9.21), New Canaan (8.88), and Darien (8.35)). We tax our citizens at a rate 52% higher than Darien’s citizens. Sixty percent (60%) of that tax burden is to pay for schools and debt service for school construction projects.
Conclusion? Norwalk’s taxpayers are already paying much higher taxes than most of our neighboring communities – including communities much wealthier than Norwalk – and the majority of those taxes go to support our schools.
IV. A Final Word
The Board of Estimate is working hard to provide adequate financing to our schools, police, DPW and other departments. We need to fix some terrible problems with flooding of peoples’ homes, and address other important matters. And we need to do it without breaking our taxpayers backs. Hopefully this article will help people to understand that “only†increasing the school budget by $5.2 million this year (as proposed) does NOT mean Norwalk isn’t committed to supporting our schools. We already do so far more generously than most other communities in Connecticut, and will undoubtedly continue to do so. But in a middle-income community like Norwalk, “generous†support cannot mean “unlimitedâ€.
