Then somehow, things get settled. Nothing gets much better. Think of a food fight. Stuff gets thrown around, then gets cleaned up, but the cafeteria stays the same. The biggest reason for the cyclical sameness is paranoid politics.
Nobody has the cajones to fix the system.
But nobody wants to be blamed. Some education reformers argue most school districts and all poorer districts would be better funded by the state personal income tax or the sales tax or some mix of state taxes, rather than property taxes. The problem, of course, is Republican leaders from Ridge on down would have to support increasing state taxes. I'm betting zero. Meanwhile, the House yesterday started its annual budget process.