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Press of Atlantic City- New formula in the works for funding N.J. schools Star Ledger - Davy says Education Dept. faces doing more with less;Legislators sympathize with the acting commissioner and suggest adding employees
Ocean County Observer: Corzine advisors - Call property tax session for July
Press of Atlantic City: Legislators urge direct aid for state special services schools
New formula in the works for funding N.J. schools
By DIANE D'AMICO Education Writer, (609) 272-7241
Published: Tuesday, May 16, 2006
Updated: Tuesday, May 16, 2006
Acting state Education Commissioner Lucille Davy told the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee on Mon-day that the Department of Education should be ready in July to begin working with the Legislature on a new school-funding formula.
She added that depending on how smoothly the process proceeds, a new formula could be in place in time for the 2007-08 school year, but a transition period would likely be needed to acclimate school districts to the formula and assure that no districts would be too adversely affected the first year.
“We've been working on this since 2003, so a lot of the background work is done,” Davy told the committee. “We just have to connect the 2003 work to the present.”
Davy's answer came in response to a question from state Sen. Joseph Doria Jr., D-Hudson, one of several members of the committee who questioned the DOE about school funding, the dominant topic of the more than three-hour hearing.
“We have to move forward on this,” Doria said. “It's time to deal with the Abbotts, all the other districts, and be realistic about how much money is needed.”
Davy said the DOE should have its information and suggestions ready once the 2007 state budget is approved in July.
If a new formula is approved by early next year, there might be time to get it to the local school districts as they prepare their 2007-08 budgets. Otherwise it would have to wait for 2008-09.
“It all depends on what we can do together,” Davy said. “The funding issue is at the heart of all the issues we face.”
State Sen. Barbara Buono, D-Middlesex, expressed concern that after five years of almost flat state aid, a new formula would likely need some transition time, both to implement the new rules and determine how much funding is needed.
“We have to worry about the effect on property taxes,” she said.
Several senators questioned Davy about current funding under the 1996 funding law, known as CEIFA, and the status and eligibility of the 31 urban Abbott districts.
Davy repeated what she said at Assembly budget hearings last week, that the DOE proposal would be an entirely new way of funding schools, so there is no point in trying to go back to see what districts might have gotten under CEIFA, or who could lose or gain Abbott status. She said she would rather have her staff work on new proposals than rehash old formulas that won't be used.
“CEIFA was ruled unconstitutional for the Abbott districts,” Davy said. “Even full funding of CEIFA, which almost never happened, at this point would not solve the structural problems with the formula.”
Davy did not present any details of the DOE's proposals, but said they want a system that is targeted to children, not school districts.
“A new funding formula is not just about the Abbotts,” she said. “It's about helping children based on what they need, not where they live. Right now there are many children with special needs in districts that would never qualify to be Abbotts.”
She said the current formula pits districts and children against each other for state funding.
Davy says Education Dept. faces doing more with less
Legislators sympathize with the acting commissioner and suggest adding employees
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
BY JOHN MOONEY
Star-Ledger Staff
Since the 1980s, the state Department of Education has seen its staffing cut almost in half as its responsibilities increased dramatically.
And while acting Education Commissioner Lucille Davy described to legislators yesterday still more department programs and oversight to come, she didn't hide the tight straits already faced within her agency.
She said the department's staff is down to about 800 employees, including another 18 positions cut under Gov. Jon Corzine's proposed budget, and she called the department's computer system "generations removed from where it should be."
"The department is already quite lean, but we have worked hard over the past few months to comply with Governor Corzine's di rective to reduce costs and improve efficiency," Davy told the Senate Budget Committee.
"There is no question that we will place a greater focus on accountability as we move forward," she said.
Davy -- said to be a finalist for the permanent commissioner post -- stressed that she wasn't complaining about the state of her department, as much as explaining it. She added that before looking at any more staffing, a review is needed to ensure the current employees are best utilized.
She said other cost savings have been found, including a reduction in agency vehicles and cell-phone use and a "paperless" -- mostly on line -- state board of education that will save $35,000 alone in document copying.
But some on the Senate committee questioned if the additional help was needed to fulfill what they described as the department's critical functions. The department operates on about $66 million a year, while distributing and tracking a budget of more than $10.5 billion in state and federal aid to local districts.
"I know this won't go over well, but I think the department of education is too small," said state Sen. Joseph V. Doria (D-Hudson).
"I'm not one for empire building, but given the department's responsibility and the $10 billion (it oversees) ... it would seem to me that having one employee for every $10 million out there is not a good way to insure there is very good accountability," Doria said.
The capacity of the department has been a concern in and outside
Earlier this month, state Attor ney General Zulima Farber also told the state Supreme Court that the state had failed to adequately review and track billions of dollars spent to meet the court's mandates under the Abbott v. Burke school equity rulings.
But even so, more work for the department is on the way. The state has expanded to seven grades of student testing, and a new monitoring system is soon to be launched that will see each of the state's more than 600 school districts annually reviewed for their fiscal, instructional and other operations.
Assembly Speaker Joseph J. Roberts (D-Camden) has also proposed a new local budgeting process in which the state approves every districts' annual budget and administrator contracts through its county offices.
John Mooney covers education. He may be reached at jmooney@star ledger.com, or (973) 392-1548.
Corzine advisors: Call property tax session for July
Posted by the Ocean County Observer on 05/16/06
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
An advisory group for Gov. Jon S. Corzine plans to recommend he call the Legislature into special session in July to consider reforming
Corzine's group is readying its report for release as early as this week, but has unanimously recommended the Democrat convene the Legislature for a summer session that would deal solely with property tax reform.
"He has the power to do it and he should call them," said Cy Thannikary, a member of Corzine's 14-member advisory group putting the finishing touches on its final report.
Senate President Richard J. Codey yesterday said he will announce within 10 days a special task force that would outline how a session might unfold. He said the task force will need time and he might not be ready to convene the Senate to consider reform until autumn.
"When we're ready, we'll come back in," Codey said.
Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts Jr. last week announced plans to have the Assembly work through the summer on reforming school funding and public employee pensions and making it easier for governments to share services and merge.
"I am completely open to anything that moves us toward a property tax solution," Roberts said.
The average New Jerseyan pays about $6,000 annually in property taxes, nearly twice the national average.
Property taxes have plagued New Jerseyans for decades and many expect the levies to increase significantly this year amid state budget woes. Corzine proposed no increases in state aid for municipalities and schools and has been unable to fulfill a campaign vow to restore and increase property tax rebates.
Corzine's advisory group holds no official power, but has been studying how the governor should handle property tax reform since shortly after he won last year's gubernatorial election.
"We want them to do what they should have done all these years," said Marilyn Askin,
Corzine has said for weeks he wants to quickly tackle property tax reform once the state budget is approved around July 1, but hasn't revealed plans beyond support for a special session and a citizen-staffed constitutional convention on the issue.
"The governor is working with the legislative leadership on this," Corzine spokesman Anthony Coley said. "He believes property tax reform should be the first order of business after the budget and looks forward to reading the transition group's report."
Thannikary and Askin said the group wants a special session in early July partly in case lawmakers fail to adopt solutions. If that happens, they and others support allowing citizens to elect delegates to a convention that would consider amending the state Constitution and changing the way the state collects taxes.
The Legislature would have to approve asking voters during a November referendum whether to authorize a convention. Such ballot questions need to be approved by Aug. 7 this year.
Codey said the governor, before pushing legislative action, needs to announce his own property tax reform plan. Corzine has often said the state relies too much on property taxes, but hasn't specifically said how that should be changed and what he thinks should be considered during a special session.
Sen. Barbara Buono, during yesterday's Senate budget hearing on education spending, promoted quick action.
"We have a virtual plethora of alternatives out there and they've been out there for a long time and the only thing that we haven't achieved is a consensus," said Buono, D-Middlesex. "So why don't we meet to try to arrive at that consensus because we're not going to until, I think, we have the glare of public scrutiny upon us."
Legislators urge direct aid for state special services schools
By DIANE D'AMICO Education Writer, (609) 272-7241
Published: Tuesday, May 16, 2006
Updated: Tuesday, May 16, 2006
TRENTON — State Sen. Stephen Sweeney, D-Cumberland, Gloucester, Salem, and Sen. William Gormley, R-Atlantic, both members of the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee, have joined forces to try to get direct state aid for the eight public special services schools in the state.
That would relieve some of the pressure on local school districts, which pay tuition to send disabled students to the schools.
“They have the unique capability to meet the needs of students,” said Gormley, who invited Atlantic County Special Services School Superintendent Barbara Morvay to the budget hearing Monday. “I'd like to see them get some direct funding.”
Special services schools were started at a time when many handicapped children were sent to private schools for the disabled. The new public special services schools, operated by the county governments, saved money and allowed students to remain closer to their home districts.
But the new national model is to try to keep students in their local hometown schools. Now, only the most severely disabled students attend special services schools, and their costs are paid through tuition from the hometown school districts. But the services for those students are more expensive, which raises tuition costs to the local districts.
The state provides some extraordinary aid for local district tuition costs that exceed $40,000 per student, but the number of applications has skyrocketed, while the $52 million in aid has been flat for the last four years.
In 2002-03 there were 5,440 applications for extra aid totaling almost $82 million. In 2005-06 there were 10,500 applications totaling almost $175 million according to the state Office of Legislative Services.
Sweeney said it is more cost effective to have one school with top-quality services for all the children than several small programs scattered among school districts.
“Parents are always asking us if their child can come here, and as far as I'm concerned the county special services school is a public school for our towns,” Sweeney said.
He said when former Gov. James McGreevey visited, he lauded the proposal as a way to control costs and offer quality services by locating them at one site.
Education Commissioner Lucille Davy said the special services schools could work with the local districts. She said the state has been cited by the federal government because so many special education students attend schools outside of their home district compared to other states.
But the statistics can be misleading. Other states have larger school districts, some countywide, so that even if a child is in a special school, he or she may still be considered to be within their own district.
Gormley said he understands the state funding crisis and is not asking for more aid. He said he would have liked to have $5 million of the funding proposed by Corzine be given to the eight Special Services schools.
“We're not giving up on this,” he said.
To e-mail Diane D'Amico at The Press:
DDamico@pressofac.com