07/13/11: The tug of war over school dollars

This op-ed appeared in The Virginian-Pilot on the date shown.

IN THE MIDST of the struggle between the Virginia Beach City Council and the School Board, it would be easy to dismiss a study that shows a link between school scores and tax revenue. It would be easy to say that the study, paid for by the school system, is self-serving.

It may be easy, but it would be wrong.

As reported in Tuesday’s paper, economist Michael Walden estimated that between 2007 and 2010, improved test scores helped increase city property values by between $2.8 billion and $9.5 billion and tax revenues by between $28 million and $86 million a year.

Numerous studies have shown a link between test scores and property values. Just type “test scores and property values” into your favorite search engine, and you will find a number of them.

In Chicago, each 1 percent increase in average reading test scores equated to a 1.6 percent increase in house values. In Ohio, an increase of 20 percentage points in the pass rate of school proficiency tests increased home values about 7 percent. In West Hartford, Conn., a 12 percentage point increase in the number of fourth-graders meeting the state achievement test goal increases the price of a home by about 3 percent.

Public school test scores are now an influential part of the home-buying process, in some cases the No. 1 issue. So there is no question that test scores affect property values. The only question is how much they affect it, and the Walden study gives some ranges, albeit rather broad ones, as to what those numbers are.

Virginia Beach schools have a budget for 2011-12 of approximately $753 million. This is down from $873 million two years ago. They currently have a revenue-sharing formula with the city to receive about 50 percent of seven city revenue streams. And this is where the problem lies. Although elected, the School Board does not have its own taxing authority and must rely on the largesse of the City Council. “The buck stops with the city” is how Councilman Jim Wood phrased it.

The majority of states have elected school boards with taxing authority. Only a few states have elected school boards and make them rely on the local governing body for local school revenues. Of course, Virginia is one of them.

Elected school boards exist in 111 of Virginia’s 135 localities. None of them has taxing authority. A change to the state constitution would be required, which doesn’t appear to be forthcoming.

State Sen. Harry Blevins of Chesapeake introduced legislation in 2008 that would have directed the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission to study the issue of granting that authority to elected school boards. While the bill passed the state Senate, it never made it out of the House of Delegates Committee on Rules. If a study can’t get done, the likelihood of a constitutional amendment is virtually nil at this point.

I do not understand the logic of having elected school boards without taxing authority. It seems to me that the system is designed to create friction between two groups that should have their citizens’ best interests at heart. With homes being many people’s largest single asset, higher property values because of good schools is a victory for all.

Virginia Beach’s City Council and School Board need to learn to work together to achieve these goals. And we as citizens need to help them remember that.