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NJ Spotlight--No Fast Fixes for New Jersey’s Deeply Flawed School Funding
Is your district getting all the aid that’s coming to it, or is it one of many that’s being shortchanged?
No one is happy with the way New Jersey funds its schools, thanks in part to a state aid system that has become badly distorted in recent years. Some districts, are awarded more aid than they should be under the state formula, while others are consistently shortchanged. (Use our interactive database to see if your district is getting more aid — or less — than it should.)
Many experts say the system is unfair and outdated — and that now is the time to redress its shortcomings.
A recent proposal by Gov. Chris Christie to level funding across the state has electrified the debate. Politicians from wealthy — and some not so wealthy — suburban towns are cheering the idea, while others accuse the governor of pulling a political stunt.
The Christie proposal is also complicating a new effort led by state Senate President Stephen Sweeney and Senate Education chair Teresa Ruiz to reform the school-funding formula, which was developed eight years ago but never fully implemented.
Meir Rinde | July 15, 2016
Star Ledger--Trenton, Princeton agree Christie's school funding formula unfair
TRENTON — Mayors, school board representatives and superintendents from Trenton, Princeton and Ewing all agreed Thursday that the state's current school funding formula was adequate — provided the state fully implement and fund it.
Then they went on to agree that Gov. Chris Christie's new formula concerned them.
"One size does not fit all," State Sen. Shirley Turner (D-Mercer) said when referencing Gov. Christie's plan.
State senators met with a mixture of Mercer County's officials in the Statehouse to discuss two school funding formulas — a new one proposed by Gov. Christie and another proposed by Senate President Steve Sweeney that would revise the current formula.
Greg Wright | For NJ.com|on July 14, 2016 at 6:05 PM, updated July 14, 2016 at 7:34 PM
Washington Post--Why the movement to privatize public education is a very bad idea
Samuel E. Abrams is the director of the National Center for the Study of Privatization in Education at Teachers College, Columbia University. He has written a new book, “Education and the Commercial Mindset,” that details how and why market forces have come to rise in public education and become important in corporate school reform.
Renowned progressive educator Deborah Meier wrote an interesting review of the book on her blog. She wrote in part:
This is a book that you should rush out and buy/read. The author, Samuel E. Abrams, is currently the director of the National Center for the Study of Privatization in Education, Teachers College, Columbia. When I first saw the title and the source, I did not think it would be a book I would be enthusiastic about.
However, I discovered immediately that the author taught for a number of years at NYC’s Beacon High School, which I know and respect. So I decided maybe my biases were unfair. Indeed I was wrong to be wary. Chapter One should be a must for all those who want (or should want) to understand the period we are in and the issues confronting us. If you can’t imagine reading the whole book — start there. Then decide.
Valerie Strauss July 14 at 5:37 PM
