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GARDEN STATE COALITION OF SCHOOLS/GSCS
EMAILNET 1-2 & 3 -07
GSCS’ NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTION …..
School Funding, Community Role, Organization & Structure
On the GSCS Homepage www.gscschools.org
1-3-07 GSCS Member ALERT '
GSCS MEMBERS OUTREACH NEEDED NOW! Legislation on County schools bills has been scheduled for Assembly votes on Monday, 1-8-07. But, note that the Senate also has scheduled a voting session on the same day. While there are no bills posted yet for a Senate vote, the likely approach will be for the Assembly to pass bills on Monday and then literally ‘run’ certain bills (more controversial, rushed bills such as the county ‘super’ superintendent bills(S10 - A4 in te Assembly]), or the county-wide district bill - S7 [A8 in the Assembly]-may emerge for a vote this way) across the hall for the Senate to then post those bills for a vote on the same day. Majority of bills – perhaps all - will be publicly scheduled on the Senate board list prior to the voting session; it’s a matter of when, and timing is everything. Do not hesitate to contact
Call/email !TODAY! your local legislators, Governor Corzine (609 292 6000), Senate President Codey 609 292 5215 and Assembly Speaker Joe Roberts (609 292 7065) today! For details, click here on ...
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1-3-07 'Super' superintendent bill scheduled for vote in Assembly this Monday
"Officials seek bargaining power on state health benefits" Star-Ledger... Local officials, school boards and county colleges are urging Gov. Jon Corzine to help them gain the power to negotiate health benefits with their 215,000 active and retired employees, an action they say would save $34 million the first year.
The lower house is also set to vote on the creation of an independent state comptroller; a state-run commission to recommend mergers and shared services for towns; and "super" county schools superintendents with more power to control local school spending....
"LEGISLATURE: To take up comptroller, property tax bills"
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1-2-07 GSCS’ New Year's Resolution:
GSCS urges you to use this resolution below as a springboard for talking points when you communicate with your legislators, legislative leadership and Governor Corzine. As always, we ask you to take an active role and to let
GSCS continues to be concerned with the lack of open public discussion, combined with Statehouse confusion over the 'what's and how-to's, regarding legislation that is being proposed and voted on without going through the normal standing committee review.
The New Jersey Assembly is meeting Thursday Jan. 4th to caucus, with its focus on property tax reform legislation. Both houses have scheduled voting sessions for January 8th, and the Governor is scheduled to give his State of the State message on Tuesday Jan. 9th. The expectation is that bills – possibly the bills will emerge re: the Special Session on Property Tax relief and reform.
GSCS Resolution for Public Schools (1-2-06) on
‘School Funding, Community Roles, Organization and Structure’ follows:
WHEREAS GSCS represents over 110 achieving, responsible, and very strong public school districts that spend both their human and fiscal resources prudently, with the well-being of students and community as their highest priority;
WHEREAS GSCS districts and like districts, by state policy and by state legislative and executive branch decisions, have been required are required to support their public schools approximately 90-95% via local property taxes for a number of years now;
WHEREAS statewide statistics are now showing that the property tax burden is increasing more on mid-to-upper-middle income families in
WHEREAS in the recent past state policies have required cuts to public school districts where cuts have been primarily focused on school administration. Further, "hard caps" that do not take costs over which schools have no control into consideration, will negatively impact classroom and education programs alike;
BE IT RESOLVED THAT GSCS requests the legislature and Governor Corzine - when proposing legislation that impacts New Jersey public education and their communities - to consider the not only the fiscal, but also the educational and community well-being of all its districts and its public school students. In so doing, state leadership should devise policies that assure that:
1) all districts stay tied to state policies as demonstrated by a stable and realistic state aid floor that supports all children, no matter where they live,
2) all districts continue to receive special education aid as a categorical aid, distributed per the individual student’s need, no matter where they live,
3) all districts be allowed a requisite flexibility in their budgeting process that allows for unanticipated needs and cost drivers beyond local control, and
4) all districts and communities continue to take the lead in and have an active voice and choice in the nature, structure and program delivery of their district's design and system of their individual public schools and their community's children.
GSCS Quick Facts:
DOE Retains Experts to Review Costs Report
Three nationally-recognized experts have been retained by the New Jersey Department of Education to review and comment on the department’s recently-released Report on the Cost of Education, Commissioner Lucille E. Davy announced today… The consultants are:
Dr. Allan R. Odden, a professor in the Dept of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis at the University of Wisconsin and the co-director of the Consortium for Policy Research in Education in the Wisconsin Center for Education Research.
Joseph Olchefske, managing director in the District Consulting Group at the American Institutes of Research.
Dr. Lawrence O. Picus, a professor at the University of Southern California Rossier School of Education and director of the
The consultants’ reviews will include critical assessments of the recommendations made by the professional judgment panels on school and district level resources, with a particular focus on the base education program and the recommendations for extra services for ELL students (English language learners) and other at-risk students. Their report is due Friday, January 19…
The department has also launched a new page on its website entitled, “Planning for a New School Funding Formula,” which includes downloadable copies of the DOE Report on the Cost of Education and the report of the Joint Legislative Committee on Public School Funding Reform, an archived web cast of the three public hearings on the report that took place on December 18, information on the current school funding formula and a list of frequently asked questions (FAQs).
For details, go to: htmhttp://www.nj.gov/njded/news/2007/0102sf.htm
12-31-06 New Year's articles reflect not only on property taxes but also how suburbs are changing in challenging ways
NEW JERSEY PROPERTY TAX REFORM EFFORT TO RESUME Dec. 31'06, The Associated Press
"...A new school funding formula designed to steer more money toward rural and suburban schools without cutting funding for poor city schools also hasn't been introduced. Corzine is hopeful it will be ready before the budget plan is introduced..."
THE CHANGING FACE OF THE SUBURBS, New York Times, Dec 31 '06
"...Also, for most residents of the region’s suburbs, taxes are rising faster than income.....Many students from around the region who have gone off to college are not coming back, helping to turn the suburbs, increasingly, into a land of 50-somethings...."The immigrants have also begun to transform the region’s schools, which are adopting new roles in assimilating them. In the process, many schools have had to shift from a historic mission of educating a largely affluent, white, English-speaking population. Now their responsibility includes many students whose native language is not English and who may also be financially disadvantaged. Helping them achieve the educational standards required of workers in a region that demands higher skills can be demanding....."
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12-19-06 Feedback - articles on school funding hearings held 12-18-06
STAR LEDGER The president of one
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12-18-06 Sunday editorials - take of Property Tax session
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12-18-06 GSCS on Dept. of
GARDEN STATE COALITION OF SCHOOLS/GSCS 12-18-06 INITIAL CONCERNS: Department of
AN OVERALL CONCERN: Inadequate timelines have not been allowed for the full in-depth analyses, open discussion and understanding of the district-by-district impact that a new school funding formula requires. In addition, any funding formula viable conversation needs to be rooted in reality –to do that, the entire package needs to be revealed at the same time. A conversation about theory, when not backed up by knowledge of practical application, will likely result in confused expectations, mixed messages, and ‘having to do whole thing’ over again to get it right.....
CONCERN: LEVELING DOWN OF QUALITY EDUCATION. Does the per pupil *cost measure (an average of $8500) demonstrate the state’s goal/expectations for quality education in New Jersey in the future?...Literal district data was not used to derive costs, thus the reality of variances such as teacher stability and enrollment growth which affect per pupil costs directly, are not a factor in the costing out process. However, these variables are a factor in local budgets and school costs.....
CONCERN: WEALTH-EQUALIZING OF SPECIAL EDUCATION AID – Keep as a categorical aid...Since special education programs are mandated for individual children no matter where they live, it is reasonable for the funding support & programs for those individual children to be the same no matter where they live. Special education support for students should not be reduced due a wealth-based calculation distributed according to district wealth, as opposed to individual student needs.....
CONCERN: MINIMUM AID is proposed for all districts GSCS supports the concept, but points out that this can be better achieve both in terms of equity and effectiveness, by increasing the state share of special education categorical aid to all districts.No district is favored in this method, and special education student support is appropriately increased via state share......
CONCERN: ABILITY-TO-PAY This formula needs to be disclosed, and the data run and published as soon as possible so that it can be reviewed, with an eye on significant change possibilities, and the real probability of unintended consequences.....
ATTENDANT CONCERN - HARD CAPS: Reasonable caps differ from hard caps. In the proposed funding plan, hard caps apply cross the board with no exception allowed other than enrollment growth…. The data speaks loudly – these two factors alone (increase in health benefits and special education costs) made up 61.5% of local levy growth from FY02 to FY06- and makes clear that hard caps will have a negative impact on quality education. There is further stress on local districts now due to uncertainty concerning health benefits since the Governor’s recent removal of health benefits reform from the special session legislative proposal package.
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12-15-06 District 21 letter to GSCS subsequent to S7 & S10 being held
"...Please understand that we, as District 21 legislators, sent strong messages to both the legislative leadership in both houses, as well as the sponsors of these measures, that we shared our constituents' concerns that these two education measures would fail to deliver property tax savings while damaging strong and functioning local education systems."
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