Quality Public Education for All New Jersey Students

 

 
     7-14-11 State GUIDANCE re: Using Additional State Aid as Property Tax Relief in this FY'12 Budget year.PDF
     7-14-11 DOE Guidance on Local Options for using Additional State School Aid in FY'12 State Budget.PDF
     FY'12 State School Aid District-by-District Listing, per Appropriations Act, released 110711
     7-12-11 pm District by District Listing of State Aid for FY'12 - Guidelines to be released later this week (xls)
     Democrat Budget Proposal per S4000, for Fiscal Year 2011-2012
     Additional School Aid [if the school funding formula,SFRA, were fully funded for all districts] per Millionaires' Tax bill S2969
     6-24-11 Democrat Budget Proposal brings aid to all districts
     6-1-11 Supreme Court Justice nominee, Anne Paterson, passed muster with Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday by 11-1 margin
     4-26-11 School Elections, Randi Weingarten in NJ, Special Educ Aid, Shared Services bill
     4-25-11 Charter Schools in Suburbia: More Argument than Agreement
     4-24-11 Major Education Issues in the News
     4-3-11Press of Atlantic City - Pending Supreme Court ruling could boost aid to New Jersey schools
     3-31-11 Charters an Issue in the Suburbs - and - So far, only 7 Separate Questions on April School Budget Ballots
     3-26-11 New Jersey’s school-funding battle could use a dose of reality
     3-25-11 Education Week on School Cutbacks Around The Nation
     Link to Special Master Judge Doyne's Recommendations on School Funding law to the Supreme Court 3-22-11
     GSCS 3-7-11Testimony on State Budget as Proposed by the Governor for FY'12 before the Senate Budget Committee
     Attached to GSCS 3-7-11 Testimony: Marlboro Schools strike historic agreement with instructional aides, bus drivers, bus aides
     GSCS - Local District Listing : Local Funds Transferred to Charter Schools 2001-2010
     GSCS Bar Chart: Statewide Special Education cost percent compared to Regular & Other Instructional cost percent 2004-2011
     GSCS Bar Chart: 2001to 2011 Statewide General Fund Transfers Required from Local District Budgets to Support Charter Schools (Increased from $85M to $317M)
     GSCS Take on Governor's Budget Message
     Gov's Budget Message for Fiscal Year 2010-2011 Today, 2pm
     8-18-10 Property Tax Cap v. Prior Negotiated Agreements a Big Problem for Schools and Communities
     7-22-10 'Summer school falls victim to budget cuts in many suburban towns'
     7-12-10 Assembly passes S29 - the 2% cap bill - 73 to 4, with 3 not voting
     7-8-10 Tax Caps, Education in the News
     GSCS:Tax Cap Exemption needed for Special Education Costs
     7-3-10 Governor Christie and Legislative leaders reached agreement today on a 2% property tax cap with 4 major exemptions
     7-1 and 2- 10 Governor Christie convened the Legislature to address property tax reform
     6-29-10 GSCS - The question remains: ? Whither property Tax Reform
     GSCS On the Scene in Trenton: State Budget poised to pass late Monday...Cap Proposals, Opportunity Scholarship Act in Limbo
     6-28-10 State Budget tops the news today
     GSCS On the Scene in Trenton: Cap Proposals, Opportunity Scholarship Act in Limbo
     6-25-10 Appropriations Act bills for Fiscal Year 2010-2011 available on NJ Legislature website - here are the links
     6-23-10 Trenton News: State Budget on the move...Education Issues
     6-22-10 The Appropriations Act for the State Budget Fiscal Year 2010-2011
     6-22-10 Budget , Cap Proposals & Education News - njspotlight.com
     6-11-10 In the News: State Budget moving ahead on schedule
     6-10-10 Op-Ed in Trenton Times Sunday June 6 2010
     6-8-10 (posted) Education & Related Issues in the News
     Office on Legislative Services Analysis of Department of Educaiton - State Budget for FY'11
     4-23-10 Education issues remain headline news
     4-22-10 School Elections - in the News Today
     4-21-10 DOE posts election results
     Hear about Governor Christie's noontime press conference tonight
     4-21-10 News on School Election Results
     4-21-10 Assoc. Press 'NJ voters reject majority of school budgets'
     4-20-10 Today is School Budget & School Board Member Election Day
     4-18-10 It's About Values - Quality Schools...Your Homes...Your Towns: Sunday front page story and editorial
     4-19-10 GSCS Testimony before the Assembly Budget Committee on State Budget FY'11
     4-13-10 Testimony submitted to Senate Budget Committee
     4-13-10 Commissioner Schundler before Senate Budget Committee - early reports....progress on budget election issue
     4-12-10 'Gov. urges voters to reject school districts' budgets without wage freezes for teachers'
     GSCS 'HOW-TO' GET TRENTON'S ATTENTION ON STATE BUDGET SCHOOL ISSUES FY '11' - Effective and Well-Reasoned Communication with State Leaders is Critical
     4-6-10 'Gov. Chris Chrisite extends dealdine for teacher salary concessions'
     4-6-10 'NJ school layoffs, program cuts boost attention to Apri 20 votes
     4-2-10 Press of Atlantic City lists county impact re: school aid reduction
     4-2-10 'On Titanic, NJEA isn't King of the World'
     Administration's presentation on education school aid in its 'Budget in Brief' published with Governor Christie's Budget Message
     PARENTS ARE CALLING TO EXPRESS THEIR CONCERNS FOR THE SCHOOL AID PICTURE - GSCS WILL KEEP YOU UP-TO-DATE
     4-1-10 Courier Post article reports on Burlington and Camden County district budgets
     4-1-10 Education in the News today
     4-1-10 New Initiatives outlined to encourage wage freezes - reaction
     3-31-10 What's Going on in Local Districts?
     3-29-10 The Record and Asbury Park Press - Editorials
     3-26-10 GSCS: Effective & Well-Reasoned Communication with State Leaders is Critical
     FAQ's on Pension Reform bills signed into law March 22, 2010
     3-26-10 School Aid, Budget Shortfall - Impt Related Issues - Front Page News
     3-25-10 STATE BUDGET FY11 PROCESS - IMPORTANT TRENTON DATES - April through May 2010
     3-23-10 GSCS Testimony presented to Senate Budget Committee on State Budget FY'11
     GSCS - Formula Aid Loss and Percent Loss by District - Statewide
     GSCS - Formula Aid Loss under 50%, by County
     GSCS - Formula Aid Loss of 50% or more, by County
     3-23-10 ' N.J. Gov. Chris Christie signs pension, benefits changes for state employees'
     3-23-10 State Budget Issues in the News
     3-21-10 Reform bills up for a vote in the Assembly on Monday, March 22
     GSCS FYI - GSCS will be testifying onTuesday in Bergen County on the State Budget
     3-21-10 Sunday News from Around the State - School Communities, School Budgets and State Budget Issues
     3-17-10 Budget News - Gov. Chris Christie proposes sacrifices
     3-17-10 Budget News - NJ Schools Stunned By Cuts
     3-16-10 Link to Budget in Brief publication
     3-15-10mid-day: 'Gov. Christie plans to cut NJ school aid by $800M'
     3-14-10 'Christie will propose constitutional amendment to cap tax hikes in N.J. budget'
     3-15-10 'N.J. taxpayers owe pension fund $45.8 billion' The Record
     3-11-10 Public Hearings on State Budget for FY11 posted on NJ Legislature website
     3-11-10 'GOP vows tools to cut expenses, tighter caps'
     3-9-10 'NJ leaders face tough choices on budget'
     Flyer: March 2 Education Summit Keynote Speaker - Education Commissioner Bret Schundler - Confirmed
     3-5-10 HomeTowne Video taping plus interviews of GSCS Summit@Summit
     3-5-10 GSCS Summit@Summit with Bret Schundler to be lead topic on Hall Institute's weekly 2:30 pm podcast today
     3-4-10 GSCS Email-Net: Summit @ Summit Report - A New Day in Trenton?
     3-4-10 'NJ education chief Bret Schundler tells suburban schools to expect more cuts in aid'
     3-4-10 'School aid cuts unavoidable during NJ budget crisis'
     3-3-10 'Public Education in N.J.: Acting NJ Comm of Educ Bret Schundler says 'Opportunity'
     2-24-10 'Tight funds raise class sizes that districts long sought to cut'
     2-22-10 Christie and unions poised to do batttle over budget cuts'
     2-22-10 Trenton Active Today
     2-19-10 'Acting NJ education commissioner hoping other savings can ward off cuts'
     Flyer for March 2 Education 'Summit@Summit'
     2-16-10 'Christie Adopts Corzine Cuts, Then Some'
     2-14-10 'FAQ's on NJ's state of fiscal emergency declaration by Gov. Christie'
     State Aid 2010 Reserve Calculation and Appeal Procedures
     2-12-10 News Coverage: Governor Christie's message on actions to address current fiscal year state budget deficits
     FY2010 Budget Solutions - PRESS PACKET
     School Aid Withheld Spreadsheet
4-20-10 Today is School Budget & School Board Member Election Day
'N.J. voters make choices about school spending' Star-Ledger
Phildaelphia Inquirer/So Jersey News 'Districts eagerly await voters' decisions'

'Schools face financial squeeze in Cherry Hill' Phila Inquirer


Asbury Park Press, 4-19-10 'Mapping a new path for state schools' Interview - Education Commissioner Bret Schundler offers different models for success...


Asbury Park Press ‘Think Before Casting Ballot’ ...“But bear in mind that a defeated budget will likely amount to little more than a protest vote...”




N.J. voters make choices about school spending

By Star-Ledger Staff

April 20, 2010, 5:05AM

 

Gov. Christie's budget cuts threaten after-school programs for about 11,000 kids. New Jersey After 3, a nonprofit agency that partners with community groups to run after-school programs statewide, could lose all of its state funding for the rest of the school year. Voters can decide tomorrow whether to approve school districts budgets. After all the hue and cry, the political arm-twisting and cuts in state aid, the battle of the New Jersey school budgets comes down to thousands of voters in hundreds of school districts casting ballots today.

 

The past month has seen Gov. Chris Christie reduce state aid to schools by $820 million, then pick a noisy fight with the state’s largest teachers union, even accusing some members on Monday of using children as "drug mules" to ferry information about whether their parents planned to vote.

 

"Using the students like drug mules to carry information back to the classroom, is reprehensible," Christie said, citing what he called a "mandatory" homework assignment given in Monroe Township, where he said children were instructed to interview their parents about whether and why they would vote today.

County school election charts:

Middlesex County
Somerset County
Union County
Morris County
Hunterdon County

Steve Wollmer, a spokesman for the NJEA, said a third-grade teacher in the Middlesex County district distributed the homework as part of a lesson on voter participation, called "Project Democracy," and it had nothing to do with how parents would vote.

 

Monroe Township Superintendent Kenneth Hamilton said Project Democracy has been sanctioned by election officials "because we wanted to make sure we weren’t accused of electioneering." He also said the project was under way "before our governor has been engaged in the politics of public education. It really was not done in response to his emphasis on public schools."

 

Christie has also tried to force unions to accept salary freezes by urging voters to reject budgets in districts where teachers have not agreed to take a one-year wage freeze and contribute at least 1.5 percent of their salaries toward their health benefits.

 

Today, the results play out.

 

"I think that’s going to really resonate home. I’m anticipating we will see more budgets go down this year," Roselle Park Superintendent Patrick Spagnoletti said. In his small Union County district, where teachers have not agreed to a wage freeze and 58 positions are to be eliminated, Spagnoletti expects the vote to be "very close."

"It really depends on ... whether people ... get beyond all of the emotion and look at the facts of what we’re offering," he said.

 

Previous coverage:

U.S. Sen. Menendez criticizes Gov. Christie's push for rejection of school budgets without wage freezes

Gov. Chris Christie accuses N.J. teachers' union of 'using students like drug mules' in school elections

N.J. school elections Q&A: Budget votes, board candidates, tax increases

Essex County teachers protest Gov. Christie's school aid cuts at Rutgers Law School

Gov. Chris Christie calls N.J. students union 'pawns' in teacher layoff protests

Bergen County teachers union chief seeks to survive after 'prayer' memo

N.J. public workers unions plan biggest protest in Statehouse history

N.J. teachers unions in 17 of 590 districts agree to wage freezes so far

Teachers union chief refuses Gov. Chris Christie's request to fire memo writer

As of Friday, 145 of the state’s nearly 600 districts had implemented a pay freeze or cut of some sort, but only 20 of those involved teachers, Christie’s office said.

 

In a few districts, freezes came at virtually the 11th hour. Teachers unions in Sparta and North Brunswick each agreed to one-year wage freezes late last week. School officials in both towns said the moves would spare many, but not all, jobs slated for elimination.

 

Christie’s fight with the NJEA has drawn anger from the union, and criticism from other quarters.

Wollmer said Christie is "throwing a lot of accusations around right now" to distract from the pain his budget will impose on local schools. School and union officials say a freeze is not enough to erase the state aid cuts, which represent up to 5 percent of a district’s budget.

"The governor is telling people that if they can just get a freeze out of their teachers, we won’t have any layoffs. That is not true," Wollmer said.

 

U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), who spoke Monday at South Hackensack’s Memorial School about a federal bill that would get states more education funding, said he felt teachers were being demeaned.

"I think it is not responsible to tell the electorate to just veto, to vote against school budgets, on a single proposition as to whether teachers give back money or not," Menendez said.

Joseph Marbach, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Seton Hall University, and a member of the school’s political science department, predicted voter turnout could be about 25 percent today, up from the typical 15 percent. He predicted fewer school budgets would pass than in prior years.

 

School elections are taking place today in most towns throughout New Jersey.

• Polls open in the morning in some school districts, in the early afternoon in other school districts.

• Polls close at 9 p.m. in all school districts.

• Poll sites: Voters can find out their polling place by checking their sample ballot or by calling their county board of elections.

• Problems: Any voting problems or questions should be directed to your county board of elections.

"I think there will be more attention to this election than in recent years because of the dispute between the governor and the NJEA," he said. "I think more New Jerseyans are aware there are elections this year."

But additional voters may not bode well for school budgets.

"Some of those folks who are concerned where the (teacher) negotiations have gone and who are concerned with property tax increases will follow the governor’s advice and vote down a number of these school budgets," Marbach said.

 

Many school officials said they are optimistic about today’s vote, but say passage of the budgets are far from a sure thing.

 

"If you read the blogs, people are saying they’re voting ‘no’ for the budget. If you talk to an active parent in the PTA, they’re saying we’re going to pass it," said Karen Hirschoff, North Brunswick school board vice president. "It’s just wait and see and keep your fingers crossed."

By Jeanette Rundquist and Claire Heininger/The Star-Ledger

Staff writers Kristen Alloway, Victoria St. Martin and Matt Friedman contributed to this report.

 

 

Posted on Mon, Apr. 19, 2010 Phildaelphia Inquirer/So Jersey News

Districts eagerly await voters' decisions

By Maya Rao

Inquirer Staff Writer

It's a nerve-racking time for district officials, who will learn Tuesday night whether their tightened school budgets have been accepted by voters despite the likelihood of increased property taxes.

Haddonfield Superintendent Alan Fegley has been holding chats in borough coffee shops to sell residents on the need to pass his district's grim spending plan.

Gov. Christie's proposed state budget calls for a roughly $820 million reduction in formula aid to school districts in the coming academic year. For Haddonfield, that translates into a loss of $1.5 million.

To make up for the cut - and a withholding of aid in February that forced districts to deplete their surpluses - Haddonfield is trimming eight jobs, hiking student athletic fees $25, and charging community groups to use its facilities.

The budget still would lead to a tax increase of $220 for the typical homeowner.

"I think the budget's going to pass," resident Kim Custer said Friday in a Starbucks where 10 people showed up to meet with Fegley.

But, Custer conceded, "I think it's going to be tight. I think it's going to be close."

Haddonfield, like other districts, didn't wait until this month to rally support. Hearings began in January to outline possible budget scenarios.

The Moorestown district, with similarly well-ranked schools, has worked since fall to engage the public after last year's budget suffered a surprising defeat.

The district brought together 30 community leaders to discuss the budget and attracted 2,000 residents to a series of meetings, according to Superintendent John Bach. It also joined Facebook and Twitter and solicited input online.

As a result of feedback, the school board last month voted to restore more than $700,000 that had been cut, including eight staff positions and money for the fall play, a gifted-student program, and freshman sports. Even so, the budget due before Moorestown voters eliminates about 50 positions, including nursing and guidance personnel and electives teachers.

"Less services for kids is precisely what it comes down to," Bach said of the plan, which would result in a $121 tax increase for the average homeowner.

"People wanted to have quality schools," Bach said. "They know it's important for their life, property values - for the community itself. . . . On the other hand, there's a lot of pain in this recession, even in a town like Moorestown. It's very palpable that was the line of tension."

Christie may have added to the districts' budget-selling challenge last week when he urged voters to reject spending plans in districts where teachers have not agreed to a one-year pay freeze. Teachers in only 23 of the state's roughly 600 districts - including Florence, Mantua, and Southampton - have tentatively agreed to freeze or cut their wages.

Lynne Strickland, executive director of the Garden State Coalition of Schools, said that district officials had worked extra hard this year to solicit voters' support in order to prevent further cuts to staff and programs.

If budgets are defeated, "all the pain you're hearing about will only get worse," Richard Bozza, executive director of the New Jersey Association of School Administrators, has warned.

To arrive at its proposed plan, Burlington Township has reduced funds for field trips and scrapped a plan to replace outdated computers. Lenape Regional would cut 133 positions and charge students activity fees. Each district has budgeted less for the coming school year, but each would still raise taxes.

Nearly every district plans to lay off teachers and other employees. Many would have larger class sizes.

Medford Lakes, which also faces a tax increase despite lower spending, is seeking voter support for athletics. The district is asking residents to decide a ballot question - one of the few in the state on Tuesday - on whether to raise an additional $46,982 in taxes instead of having students pay to participate in sports.

In Cinnaminson, where budget passage would mean a $382 tax increase for the owner of the average home, Superintendent Salvatore Illuzzi has met with community organizations, senior citizens, and the township Republican club to lobby for the plan.

The concern raised by residents has been taxes, said Cinnaminson Business Administrator Thomas Egan.

County superintendents said that voters in about 40 districts in Gloucester, Camden, and Burlington Counties would vote on budgets that would result in tax levies that exceed the state-imposed 4 percent cap. Exceptions are allowed when districts experience increased health costs or loss of state aid.

If a defeated budget is cut by the municipal governing board, a district can appeal to the state. But Christie has said dispensation was not likely.

"Of course, the taxpayers are concerned about their own family finances," said Gloucester County Executive Superintendent Mark Stanwood. "Hopefully, this will be an exercise of deliberation by the voters. . . . I guess they answer the question to themselves: Is the request of the school district reasonable?"

Fifteen of the county's school districts reduced spending from current levels, Stanwood said, and administrators in 13 have agreed to wage freezes.

Consider Gloucester's largest district, Washington Township, where spending is flat, school administrators and others - though not teachers - have agreed to wage freezes, and more than 60 jobs are being cut. Despite all that, the budget would result in a 9 percent increase in the tax levy, largely due to the losses in state aid.

He has worked with districts in recent years to reduce administrative costs, Stanwood said. Now, he said, cuts have hit the instructional side, and "they're to the point of doing less with less."

 

Posted on Mon, Apr. 19, 2010 Schools face financial squeeze in Cherry Hill

When her daughter Samantha, now 17, asked to transfer from private Haddonfield Friends to public grade school in Cherry Hill, Lisa Farkas was skeptical.

The part-time Villanova University psychology professor considered a good education paramount, the first step on the path to a meaningful life and career.

But when Farkas discovered that Thomas Paine Elementary - the school her daughter would attend - had International Baccalaureate classes, with 10-year-olds doing months-long research projects and delivering PowerPoint presentations to their classmates, her mind was made up.

"I have no problem paying more money for my children's education," said Farkas, now a middle-school PTA president in the district. But "I loved the IB program."

The public and Quaker programs "were very similar," she said.

Cherry Hill is one of those suburbs that are magnets for parents willing to pay a premium in property taxes for schools with demanding curriculums and a reputation for delivering high SAT scores.

But in recent months, as the district struggled to create the budget that will go before voters Tuesday, the township of 70,000 has seen a growing divide between residents who say school spending has grown excessive and those who fear that cutbacks will end Cherry Hill's days as an educational high-achiever.

Under Gov. Christie's proposal to narrow a looming $11 billion budget gap in New Jersey, state education formula aid to Cherry Hill for the 2010-11 academic year would be cut $8.6 million - about 5 percent of the district's total budget this year.

Township residents, like those in many districts, have been asked to approve a budget that would lead to a 4 percent hike in the school tax - the largest component of the personal-property levy - to minimize teacher layoffs and program cuts.

At a school board meeting last month, Cherry Hill Superintendent David Campbell, a gregarious man who has run school districts for more than two decades, sat somberly in a gymnasium filled with parents and teachers in red union T-shirts and laid out his doomsday view of the district's future.

"The sum impact of these cuts is devastating," he said. "It's of little comfort that school districts across the nation are facing the same situation. This is not the Cherry Hill you grew up in."

Whether the budget will pass is uncertain, observers say, with some of the town's older residents - many on fixed incomes and with grown children - facing off against parents of students.

In Cherry Hill - where annual $12,636 per-pupil spending is more than $1,000 below the state average - the school budget has climbed 62 percent, to $166 million, in 10 years.

District officials attribute almost two-thirds of that increase to growing demands placed on the special-education program, which they say they are legally required to meet, and to rising health-care costs for staff.

For Tom Yarnall, a sales executive who earned about $100,000 a year when he retired in 1995, Cherry Hill's escalating property taxes have drastically altered the life he and his wife planned.

Of the $29,000 income he receives this year from his pension and Social Security, almost $10,000 will go to the tax, said Yarnall, 78. Weekday golf and trips to England to visit his ancestral home - genealogy is one of his hobbies - are out. Cutting the grass and watching political roundtables on TV are in.

"I thought it would be better than this," he said of retirement.

Yarnall has joined a local taxpayer activist group and is working his way through the district's budget to identify excesses.

Like many in the state, he would like teacher salaries frozen for a year - a concession Christie has strongly advocated. The local teachers union is in negotiations with the district.

"There's a lot of padding, instead of holding the line," Yarnall said of the district's budgeting process.

Teachers' wages in Cherry Hill range from $46,277 (about the average starting salary in New Jersey districts) to $97,591, according to the state Department of Education. Top salaries in the state vary from $55,000 to $111,954.

The proposed budget contains extensive labor and program cuts. Forty-eight teaching positions would be eliminated, and under legislative order teachers will likely pay 1.5 percent of their salaries toward health-care benefits. Sports schedules would be scaled back. Instructors who help marginal students with their study skills would be eliminated. Secretaries, grounds workers, guidance counselors, even the director of curriculum would be out of jobs.

The district's finance staff began working the numbers in January, hoping to preserve the core mission of providing "a quality education," Campbell said.

The delicacy of the process soon became apparent, with the proposal to cut extracurriculars. Unlike, say, increasing the number of students in elementary classrooms, the repercussions of eliminating the swimming team or the fall play were tangible to parents, who reached out to the superintendent's office en masse.

Amanda Matteo, a senior at Cherry Hill High School East, isn't sorry to say she helped create the maelstrom.

The 18-year-old, who is "involved in every arts activity you could imagine," started a Facebook page that encouraged students to speak out. She spoke before the school board about how much playing in the orchestra has meant to her. And in a maneuver coordinated by one of her teachers, she recruited middle schoolers to join band and choir, making cuts to the programs more difficult.

"We needed to restructure the budget to what we wanted," Matteo said. "You don't remember your calculus grades, you remember your activities."

Her father, Anthony Matteo, moved the family to Cherry Hill 10 years ago. He and his wife, Marla, went to school in South Philadelphia - "the worst high school in the city, seriously," he says - and briefly attended college.

The Matteos had no intention of letting their children take the same route, and they say Cherry Hill has not let them down.

"The teachers here will literally call you if one of [the kids] messes up on a math test," Marla Matteo said.

There is a contingent of educators, including Campbell, who believe children's social, emotional, and physical development must be considered equally with their ability to do multiplication and understand To Kill a Mockingbird.

"I graduated high school [in 1963] in a class of 27. Everyone in the town knew each other," said Campbell, who grew up in Clifton Heights, a couple of miles from where he lives now. "Life isn't as simple anymore. The school does need to help students deal with this new, more complex world."

State and federal education rules have increased in number and complexity, he said. In the 1970s, the emphasis was special education. The accountability movement took hold at the state level in the 1990s and later nationally with No Child Left Behind legislation, which mandates standardized tests to reveal inequities between schools.

"You've seen a huge growth in support staff and instructional staff" to deal with new compliance rules, said Bruce Baker, a Rutgers University education professor. "Costs have been driven up by the pure number of people working in the schools."

Crystal Atkinson, 28, a third-grade teacher in Cherry Hill who is waiting to hear if she will have a job next year, has seen how classrooms have changed firsthand.

The interactive SMART Board linked to her classroom computer, reading modules designed to foster original thought, special-education teachers who work discreetly so their students aren't ostracized - it's very different from when she was in school, Atkinson said.

"I'm not just feeding them information. I'm creating lifelong thinkers," Atkinson said. "Look at Cherry Hill's success. You can't argue with that."

Yet while few parents would contest that their children have benefited under the spending increases, that doesn't mean they are willing to keep paying once they're done with the school system.

Anthony and Marla Matteo plan to return to Philadelphia as soon as their son Vincent finishes high school.

"In seven years and three months, we're moving back," Anthony Matteo said. "This area is wealthy; they have money to burn. But I can't afford to pay these taxes forever."

 


Contact staff writer James Osborne at 856-779-3876 or jaosborne@phillynews.com.

 

 

Asbury Park Press, 4-19-10

Mapping a new path for state schools

Education Commissioner Bret Schundler offers different models for success

By JASON METHOD
STAFF WRITER

Gov. Chris Christie's proposed $820 million in cuts to local education have dominated news coverage of his proposed budget as school districts wrestle with the prospect of layoffs, tax increases or other dramatic steps. On the eve of this week's school elections, Gannett New Jersey sat down with Education Commissioner Bret Schundler to get his thoughts on the current situation and his vision for schools in New Jersey.

Q: The governor has been criticizing the NJEA now for weeks. What is your view of the NJEA?

A: My criticism would be that they are too focused on a particular model of how they should represent their members. I think you could actually have their members make more money and children learn more successfully if you went away from the approach to compensation that the NJEA seems committed to.

In short, the NJEA's model is that you're going to have people get money as a function of seniority and different degrees. If you have certain certifications, such as a master's or Ph.D., you get more money. They are dead set against the idea that it would in any way be linked to children actually learning. That's my greatest disagreement.

And it leads toward them being inflexible in other areas. Rather than say, "How can we help teachers get the best package of pay, health coverage and pension," they say, "This is how we want it to be, and we get a little more every year. At the end of the day, we're going to count on the taxpayer coming up with extra money for pensions, even if what we're doing is driving the system toward bankruptcy. We're going to gamble on the taxpayer coming in at the end with money."

It's like politicians who make enormous commitments and then leave it for future taxpayers to carry the bill. It's a very irresponsible thing to do. That's exactly what the NJEA is doing with regard to their members.

With the pension fund, they'll say that the state has not made all the contributions it was supposed to make. But if the state had made all the contributions, the pension fund would still be careening toward bankruptcy.

That's because the union likes to settle contracts that maximize benefits and minimize contributions. And that leads towards an insolvent pension fund.

Q: Some teachers and union leaders say they don't want to open contracts and freeze wages because that will lead to further concessions. What would you tell them?

A: I would tell them first of all, "Look at the problem and see how you can be part of the solution." They're saying to the people of New Jersey, "If the system is insolvent, that's your problem." They're not saying this to Gov. Christie.

The people are saying, "We want someone who's going to cut the deficits and not jack up taxes." It would be far better if the teachers would recognize there's a problem here and want to be part of the solution. If they were willing to talk to the governor, and talk to the school boards, we could put together a plan to get through the financial difficulty.

Q: Do you favor having a statewide or countywide teachers contract, as is the case in other states?

A: We're looking at the possibility of having contracts that would have a minimum and a maximum, and might give recommendations as to how the step systems might work. That is not the same as having a statewide contract, but it moves in the direction of having a lot more uniformity between local contracts. We have to work out details.

Q: Why not extend the tax surcharge on higher-income earners, as Democrats and the teachers union have suggested, to help close the budget deficit?

A: Because all it will do is hurt the economy and buy you eight months worth of spending growth. Our school costs are rising at a pace of $1.3 billion to $1.5 billion a year. If you put in the surcharge, it will get you (about) $900 million in the first year and then it will get you less.

If you walk home by a certain roadway and you get mugged, and then you hear the mugger will still be there tomorrow, you're going to choose a different route. You might get mugged the first time, but you won't subject yourself to it a second time. Wealthy individuals begin to feel like they're getting mugged, and they begin to leave. And those individuals frequently own businesses. That's how they got to be making a lot of money. So it increases your unemployment and slows your revenue growth.

Q: What would you tell voters headed to the polls for the school elections on Tuesday?

A: A lot of school districts have worked really hard to economize, particularly districts where you've seen superintendents give up a raise, teachers give up a raise and support staff give up a raise, where everyone is already doing everything you can ask for. In cases like that, you should support that budget.

In a district where it doesn't look like you've had everybody trying to control costs, then the voters might, if they don't think there's been a lot of effort, want to vote down a budget. At the end of the day, I understand that a lot of property owners are being squeezed really hard, and I think they have a right to say that the school district has to control its spending.

Q: The county superintendents have been looking at consolidations of school districts. You have said you don't see a large number of consolidations or forced consolidations, but you want to remove obstacles to consolidation. What are your plans?

A: What we're going to work very hard to do is expand shared services. You don't get efficiencies as a function of merging two nonprofit, volunteer school boards. So the school board can stay independent. The issue is, are you sharing services and getting economies of scale there? That's what we're going for.

But I'd prefer to go in a different direction with regard to actual school size. If you looked at Hudson County School of Technology, it has two buildings and 10 academies within the two buildings. Each of those academies operates in effect as a separate, small little school. If you talked to the superintendent in Boonton, she is planning in her high school to put in 10 small programs that students can be a part of, as opposed to having a one-size-fits-all approach.

There are enormous amounts of data that show this is good educationally. So, when it comes to education, small is better. It's good to be part of a small community of learning where every teacher knows your name and your story.

You have programs that appeal to different learning styles. For some students, the quickest way to learn is through direct instruction, where someone stands in front of the classroom and talks. Other students don't respond as well, so you have project-based learning.

So where scale brings economy, you want scale. Where small size brings superior learning, you want small size. And you can have them both.

Q: Where do the consolidation plans stand now?

A: We're going toward a lot of shared services. I don't know that we're going to force anyone to consolidate.

Q: Should the state offer incentives for some districts to enroll children from poor-performing districts?

A: If you make it easy — and Assemblywoman Mila Jasey, D-Essex, is trying to do that now with an interdistrict choice bill — then that's a good thing. What happens is the sending district sends the tuition to the receiving district. That allows for an expanded array of options. And county schools should be supported, too.

So if you put it all together, you'd have within individual schools different academies that appeal to different learning styles, you'd see county school options and you'd see neighboring districts that make themselves open.

Q: If your school choice plans succeed, what does education in the state look like in five years?

A: If you're a child in Newark or Jersey City, you might have 30 options for where to attend school. In Jersey City right now, within a mile of my house, there are easily 10 school buildings. Let's say you end up having three schools in each of those buildings. You might have courses you can take in each of these schools, which you can't take now because they don't have enough people interested in it. Or in Newark, if you have a child at (Malcolm X.) Shabazz High School who wants to take Mandarin but it isn't being offered there, you could take an online course with someone who's teaching from Beijing.

You might also have a significant expansion of the county schools, and along with that the county may expand dramatically the support services they provide.

You might see some of the charters operate right inside school buildings, like you see in Manhattan, and you'll see a lot of collegiality among teachers in different schools.

One of the things we're looking at is having all the test scores count toward the districts' numbers. So the responsibility of the Board of Education in, say, Newark, would not just be how are the children doing in just the district schools, but how are all the children in Newark doing, because all of them are our responsibility.

If they're in a charter and they're learning successfully, that's great. For district reporting purposes, you'd still see the district getting credit for the success of those children. That creates an incentive to not just look at it as we/they, but they're our children, too. And if a private school chose to administer the standardized test, it would count too. But you can't mandate things with a lot of these religious schools.

Q: Some of your critics contend the state is not sending enough money to suburban school districts. What's your response to that?

A: I think the best thing that happened under Corzine was the School Funding Reform Act. It will result in a much more equitable distribution of state aid to school districts.

In the coming school year, aid is going down because we lost $1 billion in federal dollars. In most years, aid will be going up. And just as this year, as most people are feeling the pain equally, when aid goes up, everyone will feel the gain equally.

Q: How good are New Jersey's public schools?

A: They're pretty decent relative to other states, but they're not nearly where we should accept them being. For example, the National Assessment of Educational Progress scores came out a few weeks ago. New Jersey, as is typically the case, scored relatively high compared to other states. But we've typically been the wealthiest state in America. It's not surprising with an affluent populace and a lot of advantaged families that you have children that test relatively well. It's especially not surprising given that we spend more than any other state in the country.

Now let's look at how we do, not relative to other states but on an absolute basis. We have 59 percent of eighth-graders testing at proficient or better in reading. That's not highly proficient, that's minimum proficiency. That means 41 percent of 8th graders are not at minimum proficiency. Those students are top candidates for dropping out. Because if you get into high school and your reading skills are not well developed, students feel like they are not getting anything out of the experience, and that's when they begin dropping out.

So in an Information Age economy, where there is a direct correlation between education and opportunity, when the world is becoming so much more competitive and places like India and China are going to take their wealth and pour it back into their educational strength, we're going to be moving in the wrong direction if we don't dramatically improve learning in schools.

Q: Do you think most parents are satisfied with their public schools, or is dissatisfaction coming from certain areas and certain school districts?

A: I think it's very much a mixed bag. At the department, we get all the letters. You have parents that are tremendously unhappy. You have parents that are unhappy. The important thing to appreciate is that if you want to achieve the vision that most New Jerseyans share for education, it's not a vision where most kids do OK. The vision that most New Jerseyans share is for a system where every child has a great opportunity, and the opportunity is so abundant that the vast majority of children are succeeding.

 

Asbury Park Press  ‘Think Before Casting Ballot’    April 19, 2010

But bear in mind that a defeated budget will likely amount to little more than a protest vote.”

If history repeats itself, voters will only be trickling into the polls today to determine the fate of local school budgets and to decide who will represent them on local school boards. But with the poor state of the economy and the cuts in state aid to school districts and municipalities, turnout could be higher this year. People are much more concerned these days about how their tax dollars are being spent.

 

There's a lot for voters to consider at the polls, which are open from 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. today. Gov. Chris Christie has recommended that taxpayers vote against the budget in any town where teachers have refused to accept a pay freeze or contribute 1.5 percent of their salaries toward health benefits. Education Commissioner Bret Schundler has taken a more moderate approach, saying voters should support budgets where districts have worked hard to economize and vote against those where not enough has been done to control costs.

We agree with Schundler. Some districts have worked hard to save taxpayer money all along and should not be punished for it now. Most have been hamstrung by collective bargaining rules that make it difficult, if not downright futile, for school boards to play hardball with teachers' unions.

Also, since most local governments make modest cuts, if any, to defeated school budgets, instead of simply voting down a budget in spendthrift districts, voters instead should concentrate on removing school board members who have a track record of fiscal irresponsibility.

Typically, about 85 percent of those eligible to vote do not turn out for school budget votes. But these times aren't typical. If your district made every effort to excise all the fat from the budget, this year and in the past, support it. If, on the other hand, the school board did little to rein in wasteful spending, continued to be overly generous in contract negotiations during this difficult economic period and was nothing more than a rubber stamp for the superintendent, voting against the budget may be warranted.

But bear in mind that a defeated budget will likely amount to little more than a protest vote. The better option may be to take it out on incumbent school board members, replacing them with more fiscally prudent candidates, and putting pressure on state lawmakers to approve reforms that will help contain the salaries and benefits of teachers and all public employees.