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Star Ledger editorial - Private school 'enrichment,' at the expense of taxpayers: Editorial… “Public schools are stuck paying a disabled student’s tuition regardless of how the money is spent, and that cost gets funneled down to your property tax bill. Average tuition at the roughly 180 private schools rose 12 percent from 2009 to 2012, to $57,601 per student…”
Star Ledger editorial - Private school 'enrichment,' at the expense of taxpayers: Editorial… “Public schools are stuck paying a disabled student’s tuition regardless of how the money is spent, and that cost gets funneled down to your property tax bill. Average tuition at the roughly 180 private schools rose 12 percent from 2009 to 2012, to $57,601 per student…”
By Star-Ledger Editorial Board The Star-Ledger on October 15, 2013 at 4:40
When private schools accept severely disabled students whose public schools can’t handle them, thankful parents view their motives as above reproach.
But that doesn’t mean the rest of us should. Our tax dollars pay millions in tuition at these specialized schools, yet because they’re privately owned and run, they’ve free of the many strings that usually come along with public funding.
The result is exactly what you’d expect: a litany of questionable spending habits, from widespread nepotism to big executive salaries, luxury cars and shady business deals — all on the public’s dime, an investigation by The Star-Ledger’s Christopher Baxter, published Sunday, found.
Public schools are stuck paying a disabled student’s tuition regardless of how the money is spent, and that cost gets funneled down to your property tax bill. Average tuition at the roughly 180 private schools rose 12 percent from 2009 to 2012, to $57,601 per student, Baxter reported, and one school topped $100,000 in the 2011-12 school year.
State education officials are considering a tuition cap, which isn’t a bad idea. But as part of that proposal, the private schools are pushing to lift many of their existing spending rules, an open invitation for more shenanigans.
Two state lawmakers, Assembly Education Committee Chairman Patrick Diegnan (D-Middlesex) and state Sen. Shirley Turner (D-Mercer), the vice chairwoman of the Education Committee in the upper house, have stepped up to demand better oversight. They’re right that the Legislature should hold hearings to find out how we can tighten regulations for these privately run schools.
Because clearly, not everybody’s in this for the kids. And if they’re accepting public dollars, they should be playing by public sector rules.
