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Njspotlight.com ‘Christie's Budget Surprise: More Aid to Schools’ “"It could have been a lot worse," said Lynne Strickland, executive director of the Garden State Coalition of Schools, a suburban schools group. "It’s about time we got some good news..."
Philadelphia Inquirer ‘Christie budget could cut spending 2.6 percent’ Philadelphia Inquirer ‘Christie budget could cut spending 2.6 percent’ “…Lynne Strickland, director of the Garden State Coalition of Schools, said districts would be relieved but…”
Star Ledger ‘N.J. education officials continue to worry despite Christie's proposed increase of school aid’
Njspotlight.com ‘Christie's Budget Surprise: More Aid to Schools’
The governor follows the unexpected with the expected: tenure reform, private school vouchers, charter schools and school choice… “"It could have been a lot worse," said Lynne Strickland, executive director of the Garden State Coalition of Schools, a suburban schools group. "It’s about time we got some good news…"
By John Mooney, February 23 in Education
Education was the last big section of Gov. Chris Christie’s budget address yesterday, and in some ways, the one with the most surprises.
One was the news that he would be increasing direct school aid to the tune of $249.3 million. The total was about a quarter of the $1 billion he cut from schools last year, but any increase was unexpected, given that the early signals from his administration were to prepare for more cuts.
There were some predictable parts, too. The governor excoriated the current teacher tenure system and argued once again for private school vouchers for low-income students, insisting that "children's futures" are being wasted.
Christie also boosted funding to charter schools by 50 percent and doubled the amount of money going to school choice.
Across-the-Board Increases
Essentially, Christie is giving across-the-board increases to every school district, including some he lambasted in the same speech for overspending.
"It could have been a lot worse," said Lynne Strickland, executive director of the Garden State Coalition of Schools, a suburban schools group. "It’s about time we got some good news."
Just as intriguing is how the governor intends to restore the cuts. His plan is to restore each district the equivalent of 1 percent of its fiscal 2010 budget, after cutting up to 5 percent the year before.
The details will come out when district-by-district numbers are released this week. But for a governor who has roundly criticized the high rate of spending and low rate of achievement -- especially in urban schools -- Christie made no mention of moving money from the urban to suburban schools.
He even appeared to toss aside a proposal being circulated by some Republican lawmakers to rewrite the school funding law, including scaling back urban preschool programs. Two weeks ago, Christie himself said at a town hall meeting he would address preschool in the budget speech. He ended up silent on the subject.
Abbott v. Burke
But Christie's change of heart, if there was one, may have been as much a legal decision as a political one, some said, with the state Supreme Court currently hearing the latest challenge of the Abbott v. Burke school equity case.
“I think the governor has come to the conclusion that without changing the Supreme Court, he cannot take any legislative steps," said state Assemblyman Joseph Malone (R-Burlington), who has been critical of the court’s decisions sending additional funds to the urban districts. “He’s an intelligent man, and the reality is the reality.”
Further, others said Christie’s increase appeared a nod to the court in its current deliberations.
The Christie administration is being challenged over its cuts last year and whether they were in violation of the latest Abbott rulings. The state’s main defense is that while the cuts may have been difficult, they were necessary and equitable across districts. Now that the administration is restoring some of the money, weighting them toward certain schools would have run counter to that argument.
Still, Christie was no less the firebrand in his budget address, even if the budget did not entirely back it up. He used the occasion to again trumpet his plans to revamp how teachers are evaluated and retained, and he spoke at length about the need for the legislature to finally enact a tax credit bill that would provide private school vouchers to low-income students.
"How many more children’s futures are we willing to waste in order to support a failed status quo demanded by the moneyed interests that stalk the halls of this building?" he said. "Haven't we waited long enough to act?"
"The time to fix our schools is now," he said to maybe the loudest applause of the day.
Charter Schools
He also again called for a further expansion of charter schools, backing legislative proposals that would allow state colleges and universities to serve as authorizers and overseers of charter schools. He also played up how his budget expanded state aid to charter schools by 50 percent and doubled school choice funding.
Compared to local funding, state money is limited when it comes to charter schools, with his budget calling for a total of $13 million. The school choice aid -- going up to $22.3 million -- is for the state’s inter-district school choice program that allows students to cross district lines for their public schooling. Due to a change in the law, the number of students participating is slated to significantly grow next year, prompting the increased funding.
For all his education proposals, Christie’s budget also did not include any additional funds for the state Department of Education, which will implement the promised reforms. One especially critical – and expensive -- area is the state's student data system, which would be used in evaluating teachers based on the performance of their students.
His budget leaves the department's spending virtually unchanged from this year’s $66.2 million, and down from the $70.8 million in 2010. Still, that’s better than most departments, a few of which are seeing double-digit percentage cuts.
Party Lines
The reactions to the education proposals were pretty much along party lines, with Republicans largely praising the increase with Democrats remaining critical.
"One percent is not enough," said state Assemblywoman Mila Jasey (D-Essex), a member of the Assembly’s education committee. "A lot of districts have really cut to the bone, and 1 percent is not enough to put any meat back on."
Marie Bilick, executive director of the state’s school boards association, voiced “relief" that the governor did not call for further cuts, but said it will still be a tough season for district budgets. "During the legislature’s budget deliberation process, [the association] will advocate for restoration of additional school funding," she said. The New Jersey Education Association, the state’s dominant teachers union and a frequent target of Christie's, focused on the governor's separate budget proposals to reform health care and the pension system, in part by requiring public employees to pay more out of pocket.
"He promises to provide property tax relief to senior citizens, but only if teachers and school employees pay thousands more in higher healthcare premiums -- on top of what they already pay," said NJEA president Barbara Keshishian in a statement. "Educators have already shown they’re willing to share in the sacrifice," she added, "but Chris Christie is singling them out to pay the entire tab for this budget."
Philadelphia Inquirer ‘Christie budget could cut spending 2.6 percent’ “…Lynne Strickland, director of the Garden State Coalition of Schools, said districts would be relieved but questioned whether it was really a panacea…”
"How could it be?" she asked. "It doesn't replace what was cut last year."
By Maya Rao
TRENTON - Gov. Christie on Tuesday proposed a $29.4 billion spending plan that would increase aid to school districts and cut taxes for corporations, while looking to contain Medicaid costs and calling for greater sacrifices from public workers.
Christie said his budget, which would reduce spending by 2.6 percent, would restore fiscal order while funding priorities key to the state's success.
He cautioned that New Jersey, struggling with soaring taxes and pension and health-care obligations, is not out of harm's way.
"We must continue on the path to reform, and continue to make the hard choices, in order to fund these key priorities," the Republican governor said in an address to the Democratic-controlled Legislature, which has until July 1 to approve a budget.
By that reckoning, Christie proposed doubling homestead property-tax credits for senior citizens and middle-class homeowners if lawmakers approve a plan for public employees to pay more for their health benefits.
That drew criticism from Democratic lawmakers, who said the governor was pitting citizens against one another.
"What the governor took today was the opportunity to divide people, to play people against one another. . . . We'll evaluate [the benefits proposals] on their own merits, not under the threat of a loss for someone else," said Assembly Majority Leader Joseph Cryan (D., Union).
"It's not fair to villainize anyone. It's not us against them," Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D., Gloucester) added in a news conference after the speech. He also is calling for public employees to contribute more for benefits.
The state did not send out rebates in 2010. The current budget allows only for residents to receive one-quarter of what they got in 2009 as a credit on their property-tax bills in the spring. Eligible recipients are senior and disabled residents earning up to $150,000 and homeowners making up to $75,000.
Christie's budget anticipates at least $323 million in savings next year if changes are approved in public employees' health benefits.
The governor also said he would immediately make a $506 million contribution to the pension system, which is required under a law passed last year - if lawmakers approve changes he is seeking to the way New Jersey funds public employees' retirement.
Christie, who says he doesn't think the Democrats' plan to change the system goes far enough, wants all government workers to pay 8.5 percent of their salaries toward pension benefits. He has proposed raising the retirement age and rolling back a 9 percent pension increase enacted a decade ago.
Senate Minority Leader Thomas H. Kean Jr. (R., Union) praised Christie's focus on public benefits changes, school aid, and the economy.
"All that taken together charts a very clear course for better opportunities in the future," he said.
Christie's proposed budget includes a $249 million increase in aid to districts, most of which is formula aid. Funding also would rise for the interdistrict school-choice program and charter schools.
However, while some district superintendents expressed relief that it appeared that their formula aid was not slated for a cut, the additional aid will not bring them to the precut level. Last year, Christie cut the aid nearly $820 million, on top of midyear reduction of more $400 million.
In addition, this year the districts will be restricted by a 2 percent cap on property-tax increases, compared with the previous 4 percent cap, and leaders in many districts say their costs have risen.
Christie's budget calls for decreased state payments for teacher retirement benefits and school-construction debt service. Full details about possible effects of those reductions could be not be obtained Tuesday.
Bill Quinn, a treasury department spokesman, said the benefit figures are based on the assumption that the Legislature will pass the governor's proposed benefit changes.
All told, school aid would decrease by $287.8 million to $10.2 billion, not including accounting adjustments.
The governor is "increasing funding in certain areas, but school employees are going to be the ones paying for it," said Barbara Keshishian, president of the New Jersey Education Association. "He is pitting senior citizens and just New Jersey citizens in general against public-education employees."
Lynne Strickland, director of the Garden State Coalition of Schools, said districts would be relieved but questioned whether it was really a panacea.
"How could it be?" she asked. "It doesn't replace what was cut last year."
State aid to towns, cut by $445 million last year, will stay level. A special category of aid to cities such as Camden, known as "transitional aid," will be cut $10 million, or 6 percent.
The budget also proposes nearly $200 million in tax cuts for businesses, restoring some of the Democratic-sponsored proposals vetoed by Christie last week.
Christie's plan would phase in the "single-sales factor" of calculating how much of a corporation's income is taxable, amounting to a tax break for companies headquartered in the state and selling to a national market.
It also would double a research-and-development tax credit and raise the estate-tax exemption to $1 million, among other changes. It would allow businesses to offset losses in one category of income against gains in another, and carry forward losses from one year over 20 years.
The fate of health care in Christie's budget plan was mixed.
The Pharmaceutical Assistance for the Aged and Disabled and Senior Gold Prescription Assistance programs would see no changes in funding. Hospitals would receive $20 million more than in the current year's budget.
But to pay for these priorities, Christie said, changes in Medicaid are needed.
He is proposing $250 million in savings for the joint federal program that provides health insurance for 1.3 million low-income and disabled residents. That would come from moving many recipients into managed care and cracking down on Medicaid fraud.
His plan anticipates another $300 million in savings by applying to the federal government for a waiver that would allow more flexibility in administering the program.
The state is struggling to fill a shortfall in Medicaid after losing $1 billion in federal stimulus money for the program. Christie complained that he could not make meaningful changes because of restrictions in the new federal health-care law.
Funding was reduced for nearly every state agency. Taking the biggest hits were the Department of Environmental Protection, where spending was chopped by 10 percent, and the Department of Health and Senior Services, where funding was cut by 15 percent.
The budget reduces spending on a wide variety of programs. Money would be eliminated for the after-school program known as New Jersey After 3. Funding would be cut by $3.7 million from an AIDS drug distribution program and the State Council on the Arts would lose $4.3 million.
Christie didn't shy away from the fact that the state would no longer automatically fund longtime programs.
"For too many years, our government has operated under the belief that the baseline, the place you begin, is to continue to fund every program in the budget, regardless of the fiscal climate, regardless of the economy, and regardless of the effectiveness of the program," the governor said.
"Not anymore."
Star Ledger ‘N.J. education officials continue to worry despite Christie's proposed increase of school aid’
Updated: Wednesday, February 23, 2011, 6:34 AM
By Star-Ledger Staff
TRENTON — Something is better than nothing.
That was the reaction in many New Jersey school districts Tuesday to Gov. Chris Christie’s proposed $249.3 million increase of state school aid, one year after the governor slashed spending for schools by $820 million.
"Is this better than cutting? Absolutely. Did we all worry that it (aid) would go down? We did. We are at the precipice; if aid had been cut further, there would be no way to protect all of our programs," said Julia Walker, school board president in Westfield, where state aid was slashed by $4.5 million last year.
In Perth Amboy, School Superintendent John Rodecker said he also worried that aid might be reduced further in the coming budget. His large, urban district lost $8 million in state aid last year.
"Anything that’s additional would be welcome," he said. "Until I see what our figures are, I can only hope for the best."
Christie’s proposed budget includes a total of $8.1 billion in state aid to schools, an increase from last year’s $7.8 billion. The bulk of the increase would come in formula aid — money that goes to districts for things such as teachers’ salaries and supplies.
Christie, in his budget speech, said every district in the state — there are about 600 — will receive increased aid.
The governor handed some of his largest percentage increases toward school choice and charter schools. Aid for charter schools was increased by about 50 percent to $13.1 million. School choice aid — which allows children to attend schools in other districts — was more than doubled to $22.3 million.
Department of Education spokesman Alan Guenther said individual districts today are expected to receive aid figures. None will receive an increase larger than 1 percent of its total budget, he said.
In many districts, where budget preparation is in full swing, officials were hesitant to count any increased dollars until they see their own aid numbers. "Until we see how it comes down, ‘an increase of $249 million’ can mean many things," said Montgomery School Superintendent Earl Kim.
Christie’s budget did not include any overhaul of the school funding formula, something he has hinted at, nor did he endorse a proposal by Senate Republicans to slash funding for preschool in poor districts, in order to boost funding in suburban districts.
The funding formula is currently before the state Supreme Court, in a motion brought by the Newark school advocacy group Education Law Center, which could force Christie to spend even more on schools.
David Sciarra, executive director of the Education Law Center, said Christie’s budget shows "another year in which our formula remains underfunded," and called the $249 million increase "not nearly enough." He also rued the lack of expansion of preschool in nonurban high-needs districts.
The president of the New Jersey Education Association, meanwhile, said she was "very happy" about the $249 million. But union president Barbara Keshishian expressed concern that it would "end up being paid for by some other increase in the amounts that school employees are going to have to pay."
Christie’s budget also covers higher education. After their budgets were slashed last year, the state’s public college presidents were relieved to hear the state’s four-year public colleges wouldn’t be cut again this year. The governor’s budget proposal calls for $714 million in operating aid for the four-year schools, the same as last year.
Unlike last year, Christie does not plan to impose a tuition cap on the public four-year colleges. Last year, the schools were forced to keep their tuition hikes to 4 percent or less, a number college officials complained was chosen arbitrarily. Earlier this year, Christie conceded the tuition caps may have been unwise and the four-year schools should set their own tuition.
By Jeanette Rundquist and Kelly Heyboer/The Star-Ledger
