Quality Public Education for All New Jersey Students

 

 
     Property Tax Reform, Special Legislative Session & School Funding
GSCS and Municipalities talking together about school funding
The League of Municipalities has established a Mayor's School Funding Committee, chaired by Edison Mayor Jun Choi. GSCS' Lynne Strickland has been invited to committee meetings. Read Star Ledger editorial, click on more below.........

A consortium of elected officials, mayors, board of education members, and town officials from Somerset County, are also meeting on the subject of state aid and property taxes. GSCS was invited to present to this group. Read article & edidtorial, click on More...

Montgomery officials join wider fight for more state school aid

A county effort to hike funding for wealthier districts

Friday, September 28, 2007 9:44 AM EDT

By Katie Wagner
Special Writer


  MONTGOMERY — Montgomery Township Committee and Board of Education representatives have joined forces with municipal and school board officials from three other municipalities in Somerset County to fight for more state funding for their schools.

   The group, which currently does not have a name, had its first meeting last week and is scheduled to meet again Wednesday. Representatives from Warren, Watching and Bernards attended the first meeting with Montgomery officials.

   The executive director of the Garden State Coalition of Schools, Lynne Strickland, is expected to provide information on how the coalition has been working on this issue and what progress its made at the Wednesday meeting.

   Brad Fay, a Montgomery Township committeeman who has been organizing the group, said he hoped Ms. Strickland would be able to provide suggestions for improving the districts’ financial situations.

   Mr. Fay said the lack of state funding has driven up taxes in Montgomery so high that many people are discouraged from moving to the township and long-term residents are being forced to move out.

 

   ”What we are responding to is the formula that the state uses to decide which districts get how much money and that is a major driver in property taxes in towns like Montgomery,” Mr. Fay said. “It’s a problem that’s gotten so bad that we need to work together with the Board of Education and other municipalities with similar situations to make sure our legislators understand the problem with the funding formula.”

   He added that one of the main problems the four municipalities are experiencing is that they receive less than $1,000 from the state per pupil.

   ”Even more than the fact that funding from the state has been flat, is that the disparity in the funding has been so large,” Mr. Fay said.

   The average amount of funding a school district in New Jersey receives to educate a pupil is more than $5,000 and some cities are getting $16,000 to $17,000 per pupil, Mr. Fay said.

   ”In Montgomery, we get less than $800,” Mr. Fay added. “There are 120 school districts that get less than a $1,000 per pupil — that’s the type of communities we are similar to.”

   The formation of the group was one of the initiatives taken by the Montgomery Joint Task Force Committee, which was established two years ago. The committee is composed of members of the Township Committee and Board of Education and focuses specifically on getting more state funding for education and finding ways for the township and school district to share services.

 

 

Time for a new school aid formula

Posted by Star-Ledger editorial board October 07, 2007

Categories: Family & Kids, Taxes

Viewed from a distance New Jersey's approach to educational spending seems enlightened: $10.9 billion in state aid to all public schools, over and above what local communities contribute through property taxes.

The schools in lower-income cities are fortified with generous chunks of extra funding, including money to provide free pre-school for all and the free renovation or replacement of dilapidated schools.

A closer look reveals tension. New Jersey ranks below many states in the percentage of aid given to local schools. The additional money given to the poorer, so-called Abbott districts was ordered by the Supreme Court after a long legal battle. Critics
compare the size of that extra investment, about $1.5 billion a year now, unfavorably to the slow academic progress in Abbott schools.

Complaints about the division of resources is not merely carping between rich and poor. Communities that claim to be as economically and academically challenged as the Abbotts are asking, "What about us?"

It is a question that deserves an answer, but not at the expense of the Abbott schools.

In a state where the local property tax burden is item number 1 through number 10 on many municipal agendas, where the bill for school expenses is the single largest factor driving property tax increases, questions about who gets how much aid, concerns much more than education.

The expectation is that Gov. Jon Corzine and the Legislature will begin an earnest search for a new school funding formula soon, in part because they have promised to do so, but mostly be cause they can't avoid it.

State political leaders also have promised property tax reform. Any conversation about one must include the other, or it will not be a discourse about solutions.

Understanding that, the New Jersey League of Municipalities created The Mayors' Committee on School Funding to develop a "a united position on school funding reform."

It is a group comprised of urban, rural and suburban mayors. Some come from communities where they brag about the quality of the schools, others where they track hopeful signs of improvement.

It certainly looks like a group that might have more things in conflict than in common when it comes to divvying up a pool of tax money for educational needs statewide.

Yet, the chairman, Edison Mayor Jun Choi, said the common denominator is the belief among mayors that collectively they must take a direct role in the search for a new school funding formula. The repercussions for their communities - on both education and property taxes - will be too great for them to sit out the conversation. They are right.

Corzine came into office talking about the need to let "the funding follow the student," voicing the idea that parsing out extra school aid by zip code denies necessary help to disadvantaged students scattered in other districts. Although the Corzine administration has never precisely defined what that term means or how it might be executed, there has been concern that it might take funding from the Abbott districts to give to others, rather than increase the funding over all.

The state will get a long way to the right answer if everyone takes the same we-are-all-in-this together approach that the League of Municipalities' Mayor's Committee is exhibiting, at least for now.

The solution to school funding cannot be divisive: Abbott versus non-Abbot, high performing versus trying to make the grade, high property tax community versus those with lower taxes. It cannot turn back the clock or allow the state to turn its back on communities that are legitimately unable to afford the "thorough and efficient" education the state constitution requires.

New Jersey's Supreme Court has held the state's feet to the thorough and efficient fire through several transitions of justices and chief justices. A new school aid formula should reaffirm and strengthen that commitment.