*Change is for the most recent 5 year period for which data is available.

The loss of taxable assessed valuation, relative to the rest of the state, when coupled with the exploding school population in the cities indicates that the large city school systems are in the midst of a financial crisis. Without access to additional revenue these cities cannot meet the increasingly complex educational needs with which they are faced.

The public schools in the great cities have shown a tremendous growth in enrollments since World War II. Analysis of the enrollments of fourteen cities included in Table 7 shows growth from 2,765,337 in 1950 to 3,890,466 in 1963 and a conservative projection of 4,109,632 for 1965. This is an increase of 48.6% between 1950 and 1965. The problem of financing the public schools in the Great Cities becomes ever more critical as the enrollments rise.

*Projected by the Research Council. The average annual increase for 1963 to 1965 was assumed to be the same as the average annual increase for 1960 to 1963.

The taxable assessed valuation is not keeping pace with the growth in pupil population and school costs in many communities. In fact, the tax base per pupil over the past five years has decreased in 10 of the 14 cities listed in Table 8, while during the same period it has increased in 8 of the 10 states reporting.

*Change is for the most recent 5 year period for which data is available.

The large cities are in a position where they must increase the tax rate just to maintain their present educational programs. This leaves little or nothing in their budgets for improvement and often results in curtailment of programs because pupils are being added and costs are increasing while the total dollars available per pupil dwindle.

RECOMMENDATION V:

That State or Federal support recognize that the local ability to finance public education is reduced for school districts in which the costs of other governmental services are relatively high.

Table 9 shows the proportion of the property tax revenue that is being expended for other services in the Great Cities as compared with the balance of the state in which these cities are located.

The percent of revenue derived from the property tax by local governmental units other than school districts in the Great Cities is as much as three times that taken by the average local non-school governments of the state in which they are located.

The table above illustrates the fact that in these cities from 51 to 77 cents of every property tax dollar goes for non-school services. In nine of the fourteen cities the non-school share is 60 percent or more, while the average local nonschool government is taking less than 50 percent of the property tax dollar and some as little as 22 percent.

An example of this problem is well illustrated by the situation of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Of each dollar paid by a resident of Pittsburgh for property taxes, 61 cents goes to non-school governmental units. In the average Pennsylvania community only 22 cents of the property tax dollar is used by non-school services. This is only about one-third the size of Pittsburgh's share. The difference of 39 cents per dollar, or 39 percent of the total tax revenue, that is used by the non-school governmental units in the large city represents, in part, an extra burden that must be borne by large city residents to support services not provided in other communities. This "municipal overburden" is provided at the expense of education, and constitutes a serious limitation on the local ability to support public schools.

The cost and number of governmental services, other than education, tend to increase with the size of a district and reach very large proportions in the major cities where many services are rendered to non-residents as well as to residents. Police and fire protection, sanitation services, welfare programs, maintenance of streets and expressways, parks, museums and zoos are only a few examples of the services to which a greater portion of the large city tax dollar must be committed than in most other communities. The ability of the large city to support education is thus reduced.

THE CONCLUSION

The recommendations presented in this report are guides for citizens who wish to take resolute action in ways they deem appropriate and effective through their local, state and federal levels of government. As guidelines they are directed at the solution of the fiscal problems in the large cities. They possess flexibility for the development of procedures best suited to meet the variable problems among these cities. The principles underlying these recommendations are applicable to all public school systems in the nation.

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