GSCS Quick Facts: Emergency Board of Trustees Meeting 8-29-06 2 pm. The purpose of the meeting will be to discuss the legislature's current approach to resolving property tax stress via its four 'Special Summer Session' Joint Committees - 2 of which focus on (1) Regionalization and Shared Services and (2) Public School Funding Reform. 

• With your help, GSCS intends to be proactive in Trenton as the legislatively-determined Property Tax Special Session continues. We will continue to meet with key committee legislators and staff and be a sustained presence at the Statehouse. Implications of directions currently under discussion are potentially dire for the school districts represented by the Coalition and for those districts which would benefit from association with the Coalition;
• Areas of particular concern which could produce negative consequences to quality education include, but are not limited to:
• School funding formula (e.g., recent talk from Trenton is of “hard caps”)
• Forced regionalization and/or consolidation; we endorse sharing services.
• Proposals for reorganization and change of responsibilities in Offices of County Superintendents (e.g., potential for politicizing the office –with a 2 year gubernatorial appointment process for ‘super’ county superintendent.)
• Discussion on how to address the fiscal needs resulting from the state’s chronic under-funding of the pension funds could migrate to potentially harmful restrictions on districts.

This is a time of profound transition for public education in New Jersey. Take a look at the news articles below, which are reflective of what’s going on in Trenton.  Experiences with legislative responses to similar circumstances in California and Massachusetts provide stark and somewhat chilling examples that point towards the need for GSCS and its members to be focused, vigilant and pro-active. We will pursue the discussion on what are the major cost drivers in education budgets, as well as continue to clarify statewide data so that the legislature can make realistic decisions based on information relating to the regular operating districts (RODs) in our state, which are funded differently than Abbott districts, County Vo-Technical and County Special Services Districts, and Charter schools.

The recently released hearing scheduled for the Special Session committees follow. GSCS asks its members to come to Trenton and observe first hand how the legislature is approaching these issues, and what questions they are asking. Please contact our office if you are able to ‘trek’ to Trenton and we will arrange to meet with you:

Joint Legislative Committee on Public School Funding Reform

Joint Leg. Com. on Gov't Consolidation & Shared Services

Joint Legislative Com. on Public Employee Benefits Reform

Joint Leg.Com. on Con.Reform & Cit. Prop.Tax Con. Convention

On the Homepage Today…  www.gscschools.org :

8-23-06 Live from the Ledger on-line
News brief on the Jt Comm on Public Employee Benefits Reform meeting today, where legislators heard that pension benefits are a 'non-forfeitable' right of public employees who have 5 or more years in the pension system.
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8-23-06 Jt Comm on Public School Funding Reform met yesterday
FYI - Trenton's approach to school funding & property taxes is beginning to take shape these days: potential policy changes emerging to date are not looking positive (e.g., see articles below from yesterday's hearing at the Joint Committee on Public School Funding Reform). Quality education and performance were not an integral part of the meeting's conversation. GSCS believes it is critical that GSCS takes a proactive lead in this debate. Read these articles that report on the meeting where 2 experts were invited to present national information to legislators. Also, here are the links to the New Jersey Legislature website that presents one expert's power point presentation: http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/PropertyTaxSession/OPI/jcsf griffithncsl presentation_files/frame.htm _

Quote from Assoc Press/The Record: "Sen. John Adler, the committee co-chairman, said after the hearing that slowing school spending, especially in the most expensive districts, may prove key. "I won't support drastic cuts in spending for the poorest districts, but limits should be considered for our wealthiest districts," said Adler, D-Camden.

Quote from Gannett: "If we don't do something in five years, 70 percent is going to go to the Abbott districts," Wolfe said. "We got to do something. We got our work cut out for us."
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8-23-06 Crowd assails changes to state health plan
FYI - GSCS supports flexibility in health plans, especially allowing for dual-spouse coverage incentives, rather than the current mandate in the State Health Benefits Plan that makes full coverage a requirement for spouses (when outside plans allow one's plan to provide full coverage of the other.)................................................................. Star Ledger - "We are in a situation where rates must be in place by Jan. 1 with good lead time," said Joseph Reilly, commission chairman and assistant director of the Division of Pensions and Benefits. "We are kind of under a forced schedule." He said no date has been set to vote on the proposals...Currently, employees in 309 cities and towns, 246 school districts as well as most county governments take part in the plan. Since January, 40 school districts have dropped out in favor of what their officials saw as better private plans."
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8-23-06 Jt Comm on Pub. School Funding Reform met yesterday
News articles on the meeting foresee caps on spending, especially in wealthier districts...performance not integral part of the discussion. e.g., Gannett: '...Since court orders have linked state funding of the state's poorest districts to how much is spent in the richest, Sen. John Adler, D-Cherry Hill, said one way to curb property taxes is to limit what is spent in the most affluent communities. "One of the things we have to look at seriously is slowing the growth of spending so we can slow the growth of taxes,..." ...'
More ... 8-22-06 District Resolution for School Construction Aid
(Another cost driver that the state is ignoring and that falls on local taxpayers to make up the difference when the state does not meet its obligations.)In the midst of the state's fiscal 'mess', school construction needs & costs continue to grow yet Trenton continues to drop the ball in response to district inquiries re promised aid. Communities are in a quandary and need direction. Read to see Bernards Township resolution on this issue, a good statement of the problem and a good sample for other districts with similar needs.
More ... 8-22-06 Star Ledger Column & NY Times Editorial
Star Ledger column, On Politics from 8-18-06, foresees school funding debate framework, quoting Jt Comm on Public School Funding Chairman Senator John Adler and more....NY Times editorial on pensions, 8-22-06, while written about New York's huge pension deficit problems, could have been written about New Jersey just as well, especially when noting that "...But for all the complications of the pension issue, there is one simple, obvious, outrageous part of the problem that is easy to explain. The governor and the State Legislature have been utterly irresponsible in expanding the city’s obligations without providing any money to pay the additional cost...Leaders from both political parties in Albany love to throw large, meaty bones to municipal labor unions in return for election-year support..."
More ... 8-20-06 AP 'Property Tax reform bid to shift to overdrive'
Associated Press summary look at the Special Session committees efforts to date and next items on their agenda.
More ... 8-18-06 EMAILNET Special Session FYI, GSCS Board meetings update...