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GARDEN STATE COALITION OF SCHOOLS/GSCS
Public Support for Public Education
Federal Stimulus Information update from:
Washington D. C. & NJ Department of Education
and, April ‘GSCS FYI’
EMAILNET 4-2-09
ON THE HOMEPAGE at www.gscschools.org:
4-2-09 NJ Dept of Education memo re Federal Stimulus funds for education
Click on More here for memo and US Department of Education website/see below for information from the USDE website as well. More...
4-2-09 US Dept of Education Federal Stimulus fund information on its website
U.S. D.O.E. - PRESS RELEASES $44 Billion in Stimulus Funds Available to Drive Education Reforms and Save Teaching Jobs...Guidelines and Application Available Today
FOR RELEASE: April 1, 2009 MORE RESOURCES Guidance, Fact Sheets and Application More...
3-31-09 Dept of Education releases specifics on recently signed pension deferral law to provide $75M to help plug State Budget 2008-2009
"...Under this new law, state aid must be reduced whether the district pays the full 2008-09 PERS liability or elects to defer 50 percent. Districts with a state aid reduction must revise their 2008-09 budget and reduce the state aid receivable to reflect the reduction in state aid by the applicable amount. State aid reductions should be adjusted in the following sequential order: Adjustment Aid, Equalization Aid, Security Aid, Transportation Aid, Special Education Categorical Aid, Educational Adequacy Aid, and School Choice Aid. County special services school districts, charter school districts and educational service commissions are not subject to a state aid reduction and, therefore, must pay the full 2008-09 PERS liability......The reduction will be spread over five payments between April 8, 2009 and June 8, 2009..." More...
3-30-09 Supreme Court to hear oral argument from the State and Education Law Center 4-28-09
(Click on More below to see 3-27 letter to defendant and plaintiff attorneys describing response process to Doyne recommendation.) A hearing before the Supreme Court is scheduled for 10 a.m. at the Hughes Justice Complex in Trenton in the Supreme Court courtroom. Only the 'parties' to the case may be heard in front of the Supreme Court; the argument will specifically focus on the Remand Judge Peter Doyne's recommendation to the Court that the School Funding Reform Actd (SFRA) is constitutional for Abbott Districts. His recommendation sets the table for all districts to be unified under one school funding formula going forward. More...
3-29-09 Record Editorial on Judge Doyne recommendations
Record: Fixing Abbott, Sunday, March 29, 2009 "WHATEVER else the Abbott rulings did or did not do in recent decades, they were a well-intentioned and necessary attempt to correct a grave economic and racial disparity... [at this time] we support Governor Corzine’s reform of the state school funding formula to allocate aid by individual student rather than by district. And we agree with the finding last week of a Superior Court judge that this reform is constitutional and fair. Judge Peter Doyne’s opinion is eminently reasonable and clear. He notes that almost half of the low-income students in the state do not attend Abbott schools..." More...
Garden State Coalition of Schools
Public Support for Public Education
GSCS FYI
April 2009
Watch for: 5/1/09, ‘The Newspaper Crisis’, 8:30 a.m.– 1:00 p.m., Woodrow Wilson School
Meetings
· 04/29/09 (Wednesday): Regular board meeting, 3:30 PM,
Legislature
· 04/03/09 (Friday): Joint Committee on Public Schools, 12:30 PM,
· 04/28/09 (Tuesday): Assembly Budget Committee, 10 AM, Committee Room 11, 4th Floor, Statehouse Annex. (Hearing on FY 2010 Budget—Department of Education.)
· 04/29/09 (Wednesday): Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee, 10 AM, Committee Room 4, 1st Floor, Statehouse Annex (Hearing on FY 2010 Budget: Department of Education.)
March Highlights
- March 18, 2009 & March 25, 2009: Successful open meetings at Leonia and Haddonfield, hosted by GSCS Executive Director Lynne Strickland, and featuring DOE Commissioner Lucille Davy and moderator Michael Aron. Panelists included Ms. Strickland, GSCS president Jim O’Neill and political reporter Dunstan McNichol.
- March 24 & March 26 GSCS testified: Before the Senate & Assembly Budget & Appropriations Committees on the State Budget Fiscal Year 2009-2010
- New Members: Chester, Cranbury, Union County Educational Services Comm.
Heads Up: SAVE THE DATE! GSCS 18th ANNUAL MEETING, MAY 27, 9 am, The Forsgate..details to follow
For further information, GSCS on the issues go to http://www.gscschools.org