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‘N.J. appeals court upholds Gov. Christie's order forcing school surplus spending’ Star Ledger
‘N.J. Assembly approves bill to let school districts charge students for summer school’ Press of Atlantic City
‘N.J. appeals court upholds Gov. Christie's order forcing school surplus spending’ Star Ledger
‘N.J. Assembly approves bill to let school districts charge students for summer school’ Press of Atlantic City
‘N.J. Assembly approves bill to let school districts charge students for summer school’
By DIANE D’AMICO Education Writer | Posted: Monday, June 14, 2010
Cash-strapped school districts could begin charging students to attend summer school under a bill approved Monday by the Assembly Education Committee.
Bill A-2794 would allow districts to charge for both remedial and credit-bearing academic enrichment programs.
Sen. Jim Whelan, D-Atlantic, a co-sponsor of the Senate version of the bill, said Monday it would be up to the districts whether to charge fees. But it could provide districts a way to keep summer school operating. Statewide, districts have been eliminating summer school in their effort to deal with tighter budgets.
“It’s a way to maintain summer school without the total cost going to the district,” Whelan said. “The alternative might be no summer school.”
Students in the free and reduced-fee lunch program would pay on a sliding scale, with only students from families at or below the federal poverty line allowed to attend for free. Districts would decide how much to charge.
Local school officials were cautiously optimistic about the proposal.
State code allows school districts to charge for noncredit enrichment programs.
Northfield, for example, has a full menu of summer programs planned, ranging from a one-hour weekly class for $40 to a seven-week, full-time camp program costing $1,195. Programs will include academics and the arts, including pottery, magic and juggling.
“There are a lot of options, and they all have fees involved based on the cost for the instructor and materials,” program coordinator Amy Moskovitz said.
But state Department of Education regulations prohibit districts from charging their own students for remedial or other academic courses for which students would earn academic credit.
Millville Superintendent Shelly Schneider said a fee would help the district budget, allow them to expand their program, and require some accountability from students. She gets especially frustrated with students who sign up for summer school and then drop out halfway through.
“Some years, we have a 50 percent dropout rate,” she said. “We tried to charge a fee a couple of years ago. I even said I’d reimburse the students if they finished and passed the class. But we couldn’t do it. It’s not allowed.”
The district offers math, language arts and a course that Schneider would especially love to charge for, physical education.
“I just don’t see why we have to pay for (students) to go to summer school when we’ve given them the opportunity to take the class and they failed, often because they just didn’t do the homework or didn’t want to change their clothes for gym,” she said.
She said the district offers gym in the summer only because it does not have the space or staff to add extra classes during the school year.
Greater Egg Harbor Regional has not offered summer school since the early 1990s, Superintendent Steven Ciccariello said. Counselors advise students of their options, which may include paying to attend summer school in another district or online.
“Our real message is pay attention in class now,” he said.
The tuition cost would be based on the district’s cost. The online New Jersey Virtual School, operated by the Monmouth Ocean Educational Services Commission, offers an extensive online summer high school program that costs $650 for a full course and $350 for a makeup course. There are also some options for middle school students.
Ciccariello said he is aware of the proposed bill and will be discussing various payment options with the school board. He said the issue of charging fees affects many other areas, including sports and extracurricular activities, and he would want the district to have a comprehensive philosophy and policy for when to charge, how much to charge and how to deal with low-income students.
“It’s becoming a pay-to-play system,” he said. “But you have to look at the costs, how much you can reasonably charge and the impact on the students.”
The bill heads to the full Assembly. The Senate version, S-1974, still must be heard by the Senate Education Committee.
Contact Diane D'Amico:
609-272-7241
‘N.J. appeals court upholds Gov. Christie's order forcing school surplus spending’
Published: Monday, June 14, 2010, 5:26 PM Updated: Monday, June 14, 2010, 5:51 PM
Jeanette Rundquist/The Star-Ledger
TRENTON — Gov. Chris Christie was within his authority when he ordered school districts to spend millions of dollars in surplus money this year, to make up for cuts in state aid, a New Jersey appeals court ruled today.
In February the governor dealt schools the first in a series of financial blows, by ordering the freeze of $475 million in school aid payments this year, and requiring districts instead to use excess surplus funds. Christie said the executive order was necessary to help plug a budget deficit.
The Perth Amboy Board of Education, which had $15 million cut, challenged Christie’s order as violating constitutional principals of separation of power.
Today a state appellate panel disagreed with Perth Amboy, however, saying the order was within his authority during what the governor called an "unprecedented fiscal emergency."
The judges also rejected the district’s argument that excess surplus funds must go toward the following year’s budget — and that it is unconstitutional to do otherwise.
Perth Amboy School Superintendent John Rodecker said he was disappointed.
"I question the way (the cuts) were done, whether it was equitable," he said. "Because we were diligent in our spending, we were penalized."
Christie’s press secretary Michael Drewniak said in a prepared statement, the governor was pleased that the court "recognized his significant responsibilities and executive authority during a fiscal and financial crisis."
"We know using surplus balances was a difficult step for school districts, but it was an urgent and necessary step," the statement said.
The $475 million statewide cut was equal to an amount schools had above a 2 percent surplus level. An analysis by the Associated Press found that on average, schools lost 13 percent of their total 2010 annual state aid.
Christie sent school districts reeling again in March with an $820 million cut in state aid for the coming year. That has also been challenged in the courts; the Newark-based Education Law Center filed a motion in state Supreme Court halt those cuts, and maintain the state’s school funding formula.
That case has yet to be heard.
