N.J. school district officials say Gov. Chris Christie budget cuts will force program, staff cuts

N.J. Gov. Christie's school budget cuts reflect waning support of public education, unions

http://blog.nj.com/njv_bob_braun/2010/03/attitudes_on_public_education.html

By Bob Braun/Star-Ledger Columnist March 18, 2010, 5:00AM

The Republican governor faced the Legislature to warn of a crisis. Quick reform was needed. The issue was money for education. Salaries and benefits paid to teachers. Collective bargaining obstructed change, he warned, so new laws were needed.

Sound familiar? But — wait.

In 1984, lawmakers — despite misgivings and resistance from the New Jersey Education Association — gave Tom Kean what he wanted: A whopping, statewide increase in starting salaries for public school teachers. How things have changed. The other day, another Republican governor — whose election was supported by Kean — blamed much of the fiscal crisis on money spent on teachers. The problems, Chris Christie insisted, began 20 years earlier, timing the initial blame for soaring costs, not with Kean, but Kean’s successor, Jim Florio.

But Kean persuaded the Legislature to increase the minimum starting salary for teachers to $18,500. It was about $15,000 at the time — compared to $21,000 nationally — and Kean was reacting to the report of a national commission that, months before, warned school failure was as destructive as a foreign military invasion.

The report, entitled "A Nation at Risk," recommended teacher compensation be "professionally competitive, market-sensitive, and performance-based." Teachers, the report went on, should be paid at levels similar to lawyers and accountants.

Kean, one of the greatest boosters of public schools among modern governors, said: "People have got to be assured they are getting better teachers, as well as better paid teachers."

But now, says Kean, "the environment is very different." The state then had an $800 million surplus — thanks to a growing economy and a new state income tax pushed by his predecessor, Brendan Byrne. Kean himself agreed to a tax increase. "Teachers are no longer poorly paid — and people are frustrated by the lack of accountability."

There are other differences. In the 1980s, public education was the darling of politicians. Teachers, especially after the national report, were depicted as long-suffering heroes who deserved more respect — and more money. Now, they’re seen as bad guys who selfishly eat everyone’s lunch to fatten their benefits.

"There has been a real disconnect since then," says Lynne Strickland, executive director of the Garden State Coalition of Schools, representing more affluent districts. "Private sector employees who once felt sorry for what teachers were making now get angry when they see what teachers are making."

Attitudes have changed. Paul Tractenberg, a Rutgers law professor and the force behind decades of challenges to the school aid formula, sees a "subtle and complicated" shift in public attitudes toward education — a shift reflected in Christie’s speech.

"People still support education," Tractenberg says, "but now they question whether public schools are the best way to achieve a good education."

He cites what he calls the "drumbeat" for privatizing education — through vouchers and charter schools — that, once favored primarily by suburban conservatives, has now gained support among urban minority groups as well.

"It’s kind of puzzling because studies show privatized schools generally don’t do as well as public schools," he says.

The attack on public schools also paradoxically represents a victory — probably an unwanted one now — for teacher unions, particularly the dominant NJEA. The union, never very popular, has insisted it represents public education. Christie used the ploy of discussing his cuts to education in the context of eviscerating the union.

You don’t have to hate public schools — just the NJEA — to agree with funding cuts.

Perhaps the most important change is the role of the state Supreme Court. For decades, no matter what the fiscal crisis, the court insisted schools be funded. Less than a year ago, the court approved a new school aid formula on the condition it is funded.

"This undoubtedly will end up in the courts,’’ says Tractenberg, "but this is not an especially propitious time to go to the court."

Why? Because, in his first term, Christie will appoint two new members to replace retirees — and decide on reappointing two others. That’s a majority.

"Those are not circumstances that will make for a court ready to defend school funding as boldly as it has in the past," Tractenberg said. "That’s no secret to anyone."

Philadelphia Inquirer  Posted on Thu, Mar. 18, 2010

N.J. aid to schools to be drastically cut

Because the $1.05 billion in federal stimulus money will not be available next year, total state and federal aid to school districts will decline by 7.4 percent next school year.

By Rita Giordano, James Osborne, and Edward Colimore

Inquirer Staff Writers

Every school district in New Jersey will see cuts in state aid - some far deeper than local education officials said they were led to expect - according to figures the Christie administration released yesterday.

"We've never seen cuts like this before," said Frank Belluscio, spokesman for the New Jersey School Boards Association.

In most districts, "formula aid" will be cut an amount equal to roughly 5 percent of their total operating budgets.

In three-quarters of South Jersey districts, that means they would take a double-digit cut. Some wealthy districts would lose all their formula aid.

Officials of suburban and urban districts said yesterday that their schools would feel pain, and many said they felt blindsided by the severity of the cuts.

Many districts already were impacted by $475 million in state aid withheld in this fiscal year. Last month, Gov. Christie put them on notice that they would instead be required to spend their surpluses and any reserves they set aside in anticipation of flat or reduced aid in 2010-11.

Acting on advice from the Corzine administration and reiterated by Christie education officials, districts said, they put together budgets anticipating up to 15 percent less aid than they were to have received this year.

That all changed Tuesday, when Christie said in his budget address that cuts in state aid would be up to 5 percent of districts' entire operating budgets, which include money from local property taxes.

"We want to understand the conditions, the environment in which 15 percent becomes 67 percent," Moorestown Superintendent John Bach said, referring to his district's projected loss. "It's frankly quite disturbing."

Haddonfield, where formula aid is a small portion of the overall budget, is among 59 New Jersey districts slated to lose all of that aid.

According to state education data, formula aid to Haddonfield in the current year was to have been $1.5 million, or 6 percent of the district's total operating budget. Until yesterday, the district thought it would receive $1.2 million in the new budget, according to Superintendent Alan Fegley.

"Many decisions will need to be made over the next few days," Fegley wrote yesterday in an e-mail to district residents. "None of them will be pleasant."

Now that they have received their aid information, districts have an extremely tight timeline in which to adjust their spending plans. They have until Monday to deliver budgets to their county executive superintendents and until April 3 to make final revisions.

"From our point of view, the news couldn't be worse," Cherry Hill Superintendent David Campbell said.

Cherry Hill is looking at an $8.6 million drop in formula aid, down 52 percent from what had been budgeted in the current school year. In addition, it is spending millions from its surplus, which it had planned to use to augment the next budget.

Officials in many local districts said the cuts proposed yesterday would have serious implications.

Even before the figures were announced, Collingswood Superintendent Scott Oswald warned parents that "the Collingswood School District will look very different" in September.

"We will not be able to provide the resources and support to which they have become accustomed," he said.

Oswald said he planned to turn to the district's unionized staff members for help in seeking ways to save jobs and "get through this crisis."

Even lower-income districts - where state aid is a larger portion of the operating budget, and where the cuts will be a smaller percentage - said they would be hurt.

In Paulsboro, Superintendent Frank Scambia said the district's 7.9 percent cut in aid could result in higher property taxes, layoffs of up to 10 staff members, and reducing preschool classes to half-days.

For years, "we have been skimming away and skimming away, and getting close to the bone," Scambia said. Paulsboro, a lower-income community, gets about 59 percent of its education budget from state aid.

The city of Camden - where 88 percent of the school budget comes from the state - will have its aid cut by 5 percent, the smallest in the region. Even so, that amounts to $15.2 million, on top of the $8 million in surplus the district is required to deplete this year, school board member Jose Delgado said.

"We are looking at closing and merging schools," he said.

To close a projected $11 billion gap, Christie presented a $29.3 billion budget plan Tuesday that would sharply reduce spending and hold down taxes.

At a news conference yesterday, state Education Commission Bret Schundler said that even districts losing all their formula aid stood to get substantial other assistance from the state, including funding for pension and other labor-related costs. He noted that the state had managed to increase funding in some categories, including certain special-education aid.

In his budget address, Christie criticized former Gov. Jon S. Corzine for spending $1 billion in federal stimulus money for education in one shot, rather than spreading it across a number of years.

He also slammed the New Jersey Education Association, which represents most of the state's teachers. Christie urged legislative passage of measures that would cut labor costs, as well as of a state constitutional amendment that would lower the cap on property-tax increases from 4 percent to 2.5 percent.

Yesterday, Schundler picked up that call, urging legislators to act quickly - possibly in the next few weeks - to pass those changes, which he called "crucial" and which he said could reduce or rescind layoffs in districts.

Union officials have accused the governor of bullying and attacking teachers while sparing wealthy taxpayers.

Schundler also noted that under current law, districts have the right to seek a tax levy above the 4 percent cap if they have a reduction in state aid. He said he planned to discourage them from doing so, however, noting that state officials have the power to veto parts of districts' budgets.

No one disputes that districts will struggle to quickly craft budgets for voters to consider on April 20.

The impact of the cuts will be felt community-wide, predicted Lynne Strickland, executive director of the Garden State Coalition of Schools.

"All that angst is going to be in the air, and it may pit parents [of school-age children] against some older folks," she said. "I think it's going to be divisive."

State aid cuts sharp for Bergen, Passaic districts

Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Last updated: Wednesday March 17, 2010, 9:00 PM

BY LESLIE BRODY

The Record

STAFF WRITERthe actual cuts are deeper than they had feared.

LESLIE BARBARO / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

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Passaic County schools, which include the Randall Carter Elementary School in Wayne, will get $64 million less.

Bergen County will get $102 million less in state aid, a 41-percent cut from this year.

Passaic County will get $64 million less, an 8.5-percent cut.

“It’s certainly worse than anybody anticipated,” said James Montesano, superintendent of Paramus, which lost 99.8 percent of its aid, or $3.5 million. “It’s a wrecking ball pointed at our district.”

“This is beyond disastrous,” said Wayne school trustee Cindy Simon. Her district faces a $6.4 million cut.

Education Commissioner Bret Schundler acknowledged districts “are facing an extremely difficult time financially” due to the state’s budget crisis, but stressed the Christie administration had done its best to shore up education while slashing other areas even more. Overall, total federal and state dollars for districts will drop 7 percent next year.

Statewide, 60 wealthy districts will get no so-called formula aid next year, including 27 in Bergen. Bergen faces the steepest percentage drop in aid of any county.

Schundler said he applied the School Funding Reform Act of 2008, which awards extra help to schools with more students who are poor, have disabilities or speak limited English. After the formula was applied to adjust for such enrollment, he said, the department cut each district’s aid, up to 5 percent of its general budget.

The Education Law Center, which for decades fought in court to get fair funding for disadvantaged students, immediately protested that Christie’s plan flew in the face of the court-approved system. He said the cuts could most adversely affect middle income districts where the new formula was designed to make up for past inequities. Clifton, for instance, will lose a quarter of its state aid, more than $7 million.

“The formula was designed to help districts like Clifton that had been shortchanged for a decade,” Sciarra said.

Asked whether he planned to litigate, he answered: “The governor must, in order for this to be even considered by the legislature, ask for relief from the court’s decision last May.”

Schundler said the aid cuts and the formula would survive a court challenge. “It will benefit all of New Jersey’s children if the law is preserved,” he said.

The commissioner added that the impact of the cuts could be tempered if the legislature quickly passes Christie’s proposals to curb pension costs, require teachers to chip in more for health benefits and give school boards more power at the bargaining table. He also stressed that many districts that lost formula aid will still get substantial money from Trenton to pay for special education, employee pensions, debt service and other categories.

Still, superintendents expressed dismay at the size of the cuts, and scrambled to update budgets at the eleventh hour. Tentative budgets must be submitted to state officials by March 26 for an April 20 vote by taxpayers. School budgets are not supposed to boost property taxes more than 4 percent in a year: Schundler discouraged districts from seeking waivers of that cap.

“Having less than four days to adjust to this is just, I think, monumentally unfair to everyone,” said River Dell Regional superintendent Patrick Fletcher. His district will get no formula aid, a $1 million cut.

The $1.3 million cut in Saddle Brook came as the district was already preparing to slice $2.2 million in services. Saddle Brook has already jettisoned 10 staff positions, including one administrator, and school custodians negotiated almost $300,000 in concessions to avoid outsourcing of their positions.

“I don’t know what to say and what to do anymore,” Board of Education president Sam Salierno said. “I’m totally speechless. Where we go from here, God only knows.”

Solutions could include cuts to extracurricular sports programs and the elementary school Spanish program, as well as combining classes, he said. Parents and staff have been attending meetings by the hundreds to voice opposition to the cuts already proposed.

“The band parents don’t want the band cut, the special ed parents don’t want special ed reduced. The other parents don’t want class size to go up,” Salierno said. “Every group says, ‘Don’t touch us; just find the money.’”

Mahwah schools stand to lose $2.7 million, or a 79 percent cut from last year’s aid.

“Everyone understands the state is in financial trouble,” Superintendent Charles Montesano said. “But if you live in Bergen County, especially in a place like Mahwah, you’re sending your tax dollars down there and getting very little in return.”

Robert Holster, Passaic schools superintendent, said a nearly $10.5 million aid reduction — a 5 percent cut — from last year means there “almost certainly” will be layoffs of teachers and administrators.

He said teachers who aren’t laid off will shoulder greater work burdens.

“Teachers are going to have to step up to the plate, sharpening their skills,” Holster said. He doubted the district would be able to maintain “class sizes conducive to learning” in light of the loss in aid, especially because classes swell every year with unforeseen spikes in enrollment.

Programs intended to keep kids motivated and in class may fall by the wayside, he said.

“I’ve been getting smoke in the theater for the past two months,” said Holster. “This past week, now I feel the fire.”

Superintendent Bruce DeLyon of Little Falls called the $618,000 aid reduction, a 78-percent cut from what the district received last year “devastating.” He said layoffs were a near certainty.

“We’re going to have to look at every single line item and every single service we offer,” he said.

Totowa Superintendent Vincent Varcadipane decried the state’s failure to return local residents’ income-tax payments in the form of school aid, but said that a surplus will forestall layoffs or program cuts. Totowa had a $714,000 aid reduction.

“It’s a slap in the face to every taxpayer in this borough,” he said.

E-mail: brody@northjersey.com

Ledger editorial ‘Restore N.J. tax on the rich; Enact local property tax cap’

By Star-Ledger Editorial Board/The Star-Led... March 17, 2010, 5:46AM

Now, finally, New Jersey will have the debate it has avoided for too long because Gov. Chris Christie is showing us what New Jersey would really look like with smaller state government.

State tax increases would be held in check, a huge relief.

But there is a trade-off. Classrooms would be more crowded, working families would lose health care, college tuitions would increase, and cops and firefighters would be laid off. Our staggering pension debt would deepen as Christie punts on a scheduled $3 billion payment.

As the debate begins, we offer two thoughts. First, the governor can’t possibly justify deep tax cuts for the state’s wealthiest families while he’s imposing these spending cuts. He even increases taxes on the working poor by scaling back the earned income tax credit. This is not shared sacrifice. It is class warfare.

If Democrats fold on this, then why are they taking up space in the capital? They might as well step aside and let Republicans take over formally.

Second, Christie’s plan to cap increases in the property tax at 2.5 percent is a promising approach. It has worked reasonably well in Massachusetts. And because local voters can override the cap with a simple majority, it has spared their public schools from serious harm.

• • •

On the tax cut, let’s first talk semantics. The surtax on incomes over $400,000 was imposed last year as a one-year fix. It expired at the end of 2009, so some argue that Christie is not really cutting taxes on the wealthy, he is just choosing not to increase them.

Call it what you want. But under Christie’s budget, these families will pay less in 2010 than they did in 2009. We call that a tax cut.

The Department of Treasury earlier this year estimated the lost annual revenue at just under $1 billion. For a sense of scale, that would be enough to restore all the education cuts in this budget.

The governor argues that lowering the tax rate on wealthy families will create jobs. Maybe. But that’s what President George W. Bush said, and it didn’t work. The recent decade was the first since the Great Depression in which America experienced a net loss of jobs. In the 1990s, when top tax rates increased under President Bill Clinton, the economy boomed.

Creating jobs, really, is not as simple as cutting taxes. Building good public schools and universities helps as well, as does a good transit system and a high quality of life. To pin so much on tax rates for the wealthy is Republican orthodoxy. To make this move now, in the midst of a fiscal crisis, is an embrace of ideology over pragmatism.

• • •

A constitutional amendment to restrain property taxes is a necessity, given the failure of schools and towns to contain spending. We have the highest paid police and firefighters in the nation, and teachers are not far behind. Worse, their salary increases continue to grow faster than inflation and their benefits are way out of line when measured against the average taxpayer’s. How much longer can we be expected to pay a retiring police officer $200,000 in unused sick time?

Middle-class families are getting crushed by this. A tax cap gives them a fighting chance to push back.

California showed us how to do this wrong back in 1978. Its Proposition 13 imposed a concrete cap on increases that created overcrowded classrooms and decaying local services.

Massachusetts built a smarter system two years later, allowing for an override by local voters. Its property taxes had been among the nation’s highest, 76 percent above the average. They are now only slightly higher than average.

The Legislature should take a careful look at the experience in Massachusetts. Towns there often vote to exceed the cap to avoid the harshest spending cuts. But a study by the respected Center on Budget and Policy Priorities found the cap landed harder on less wealthy towns that are more dependent on state aid and more reluctant to vote for higher taxes. The Legislature should explore ways of using state aid to ensure that the sacrifice is shared.

New Jersey’s existing 4 percent cap is weak and porous. And local referendums on school spending today are mostly advisory, given that they can be overruled by town councils or the state. Christie offers a stronger and more elegant solution.