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GARDENSTATE COALITION OF SCHOOLS/GSCS
12-6-07 EMAILNET FYI
EMERGING ISSUES - NEW SCHOOL FUNDING FORMULA
On the GSCS website homepage today at: www.gscschools.org
12-6-07 IT IS ANTICIPATED THAT THE SENATE EDUCATION & BUDGET COMMITTEES WILL HOLD A COMBINED HEARING ON SCHOOL AID PLAN NEXT THURSDAY, DEC. 13
Save this date and plan to come to Trenton to register your sentiment on the as-yet detailed plan...we will confirm this date, time and location as soon as the Statehouse releases a formal hearing notice.
12-3-07 As details on the new funding plan are becoming clearer, GSCS will continue to inform you of its emerging position…
...Certain issues stand out at this point:
1) The Administration has recommended that a large part of special education aid be wealth-equalized (see GSCS Q & A on this below). GSCS has consistently opposed the ‘equalizing’ of special education categorical aid. Virtually all the stakeholder groups in the state concur with keeping special education aid a categorical aid;
2) The timeline/process for seeing and digesting the plan is simply too tight to work. First there is no bill, and second there are no district impact data provided at this time[bill passage by January 7, the last day of the lame duck session] ;
3) While not part of the formula, a probable two year ‘hold harmless’ approach will be applied to (as stated by the Governor recently)to state aid for all districts where aid would be reduced by the formula. Under the formula plan, it estimated that approximately 200 districts should not anticipate any property tax relief, nor would there be any circuit breakers put in place for lower income citizens in those districts as GSCS has proposed;
4) This short term hold harmless provision, while not part of a formula is an attempt to ease the short term negative property tax impacts on many districts. However, this provision will also mask the longer term effects of the formula.For meaningful debate, district data impact listings must show how the formula would impact school communities without the hold harmless provisions, as well as with the hold harmless.
5) Since the actual legislation is not yet available for analysis, the 'formula' and any new policy implications therein cannot yet be fully determined. Stakeholder and open public scrutiny is limited until these important details are released in bill form and district impact data listings.
GSCS does believe that the 'unified' application of a funding plan for all New Jersey districts is the right direction; GSCS also underscores the need to get an appropriate plan in place for the FY09 fiscal year. However, the details must be brought out and given enough dialogue time prior to enactment. A rushed legislation process simply will not work when a school funding formula, a formula that will impact every public school student, school district and municipality in the state, is at stake.
12-6-07 news articles on Governor's school aid proposal
STAR LEDGER - 'Special Ed Advocates fear Corzine's aid plan"
"Gov. Jon Corzine's plan for re tooling state aid for more than 200,000 students with autism or other special needs could penalize the very districts with the best programs, advocates said yesterday... [Brenda]Considine said her group is concerned the plan appears to distribute aid on the assumption that special needs students make up 14.7 percent of every district's enrollment, the statewide average. She said basing aid on that average will penalize districts like Mountain Lakes or Brick, which attract higher-than-average numbers of special needs students through high-quality programs.
"Our pressing concern is that it not become a local debate, and an issue where local taxpayers have to decide whether to fund special education or not fund special education," she said.
Advocates for special needs students say they are concerned by elements of the plan that, for the first time, would tie the way the state helps local school boards pay for those students to the wealth of the community receiving the aid.
Legislators, who so far have seen only broad outlines of Corzine's plan to change the allocation of more than $8 billion in school aid each year, hope to adopt the plan before their current session ends Jan. 8... "We think it will be nearly impossible to get that done in a thoughtful way before the session ends," she said.
The proposal includes supplemental funding to ensure that about 220 communities that would lose aid under the formula will receive at least as much next year as they collect currently...lawmakers will have less than a month to consider the legislation that would implement the plan."
GANNETT STATE BUREAU 12-6-07 More time urged to study school aid plan
"Special education advocates warned Wednesday that Gov. Jon S. Corzine's administration and lawmakers are not leaving enough time to discuss a new school funding plan that could have lasting impacts on learning and property taxes throughout the state."We'd prefer that the full plan with the numbers and the details be released and that the public be given adequate time to look at the plan," said Brenda Considine, Coalition spokesperson..."
NY TIMES 12-6-07 After Setbacks, Corzine Looks to Make Up for Lost Time By
More...
12-2-07 Q& A on special education aid changes in new funding plan
A recommendation in the new funding formula proposes revising the way special education aid is calculated and distributed among school districts. The state will convert a portion of special education aid from a ‘categorical’ type of state aid - which is granted per student directly dependent on the individual’s disability - to a wealth-equalized type of state aid for special education student - which is calculated based on the states’ determination of the property and income wealth of the school district’s municipality. GSCS: SPECIAL EDUCATION AID SHOULD REMAIN A CATEGORICAL AID in NEW FUNDING PLAN - Q&A
Funding for Special Education is a critical component of any new school funding formula......... Q: Why is state funding for Special Education important? A: Special Education programs and services are essential for the educational success of our students. They are also state mandated. Special Education costs obligate local taxpayers in every district....
Use this Q&A sheet to inform regular education parents & special education parents about how the state plans to shift aid distribution for special education programs...Click on More below for full Q&A
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12-2-07 Governor's funding plan:summary of 11-30-07 presentation
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12-2-07 Sunday news articles on new funding plan
THE RECORD: Many wary of school aid change Sunday, December 2, 2007 STAR LEDGER EDITORIAL: Don't rush school aid plan Sunday, December 02, 2007
STAR LEDGER front page: Two-thirds of schools in line for more aid - Corzine provides a peek at his controversial plan Sunday, December 02, 2007
STAR LEDGER column: School-funding plan deflated Sunday, December 02, 2007
Sunday, 12-1-07, GANNETT NEWS BUREAU Still unclear if Corzine school-aid plan can produce truce
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12-1-07 New School Funding concepts presented by Governor Corzine and Commissioner Davy
Below - see More - are a number of articles that capture key elements of the Administration's proposal for a new school funding plan. The initial airing revealed a number of issues with which GSCS has concerns: wealth-equalizing a goodly portion of special education aid; local ability-to-pay measure remains the same as under CEIFA; a large % of school districts are still likley not to be receiving additional aid and thus the property tax issue is not being addressed head-on with a statewide solution that includes all districts...the proposal does call for many low income communities with higher concentrations of poverty, at-risk & special needs students to receive a good deal aid to suppport programs for at risk students, as well as for providing "Abbott-experience based" pre-school programs; the Abbott designation will be eliminated under the plan. There are many more complexities that need to be reviewed and analyzed that cannnot practically be done until district data listings are released (stated yesterday by Commissioner Davy to be in about 10 days). From THE RECORD today ..."Governor Corzine wants the state to pay up to $500 million more in a new school funding formula that offers no hard evidence of any coming property tax relief, but a guaranteed challenge in court..."
Click on More for full articles from The Record, The Press of Atlantic City, The Star Ledger, The Courier Post, The New York Times...
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