How does a tax cap affect education issues?
• A cap will undo progress made toward achieving funding equity across school districts. Through the new “foundation formula” the State has begun to address these inequities and begin to close the achievement gap. • Studies have also found strong evidence that property tax caps lead to lower student test scores, higher dropout rates and a reduction in teacher preparedness. How do tax caps disproportionately hurt lower-income school districts and communities? • State aid covers a much smaller portion of school budgets in wealthier communities and much larger portions in needy school districts. • Lower-income communities, whose students need the most help to reach higher standards, are less able to have the votes (a supermajority of either 55 percent or 60 percent) to override property tax caps and raise the revenue needed to cover costs to provide the necessary supports – leaving them even worse off and widening the achievement gap. What else should I know? A tax cap takes away the voic
