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Politickernj.com ‘Senate commitee to take up budget discussion Wednesday’
The Record ‘N.J. Senate to hold hearing on budget today’
Star Ledger ‘Gov. Christie to review proposed changes to N.J. school-choice bill’
Asbury Park Press ‘Senator: School choice bill should let lawmakers opt out’
njspotlight.com ‘From Senator's Old Neighborhood, Close-up View of School Voucher Bill’
Politickernj.com ‘Senate commitee to take up budget discussion Wednesday’ By Darryl R. Isherwood | June 22nd, 2010 - 3:32pm The Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee will meet Wednesday and Thursday to wrap up final discussion on the 2011 budget and the assembly budget committee will consider the measure Thursday and Friday. The announcements came hours after a deal was reached between Democratic legislative leaders and Gov. Chris Christie over the $29.4 billion plan that will restore some $180 million in cuts from the budget the governor introduced in March. Democratic lawmakers as well as state and local employees and teachers have been highly critical of Christie’s budget, which cuts $820 million aid to schools and another $848 from the state’s property tax rebate program. Among the items restored to the budget as part of the agreement between Christie, Senate President Steve Sweeney (D-West Deptford) and Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver (D-East Orange) are funding for Hagedorn Psychiatric Hospital and money for Urban Enterprise Zones. In addition, the deal leaves intact the State Commission of Investigation and leaves in place Bergen County’s so-called blue laws, which prohibit shopping on Sundays. Both committees will also take up discussion of Sweeney’s proposed 2.9 percent cap on property tax increases. Sweeney introduced the measure as an alternative to a cap pushed by Christie that would limit increases to 2.5 percent. Christie’s cap is far more restrictive and would be established as a constitutional amendment, while Sweeney’s would leave some items exempt and would be established by law. The Record ‘N.J. Senate to hold hearing on budget today’ Tuesday, June 22, 2010 BY LISA FLEISHER State House Bureau STATE HOUSE BUREAU TRENTON — State Senate lawmakers plan to hold a hearing Wednesday on the 2011 state budget, two days after a deal was reached Monday on Governor Christie's $29.4 billion budget. Christie's budget remained largely unchanged, including $820 million in cuts to local school districts and $848 million in reduced property tax rebates. About $180.7 million in changes — less than one percent of the total budget — were agreed to on Monday, including restorations of Bergen County's "blue laws," which close retail stores on Sundays, and funding for programs for the blind, disabled and elderly. The Senate committee will also consider a proposal to dissolve the tiny Bergen County town of Teterboro and a bill that would delay a medical marijuana program, the Senate Democrats announced today. A proposal from Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D-Gloucester) to cap property taxes at 2.9 percent will also come up. With his proposal, Sweeney, the Legislature's most powerful Democrat, is challenging Christie's push for a 2.5 percent constitutional cap on property tax increases. The text of the proposed bills were not immediately available. The committee will meet on Wednesday at 10 a.m. The Assembly had not immediately announced corresponding plans to meet. Both houses must pass the budget, and Christie must sign it, by the July 1 deadline. TRENTON — State Senate lawmakers plan to hold a hearing Wednesday on the 2011 state budget, two days after a deal was reached Monday on Governor Christie's $29.4 billion budget. Christie's budget remained largely unchanged, including $820 million in cuts to local school districts and $848 million in reduced property tax rebates. About $180.7 million in changes — less than one percent of the total budget — were agreed to on Monday, including restorations of Bergen County's "blue laws," which close retail stores on Sundays, and funding for programs for the blind, disabled and elderly. The Senate committee will also consider a proposal to dissolve the tiny Bergen County town of Teterboro and a bill that would delay a medical marijuana program, the Senate Democrats announced today. A proposal from Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D-Gloucester) to cap property taxes at 2.9 percent will also come up. With his proposal, Sweeney, the Legislature's most powerful Democrat, is challenging Christie's push for a 2.5 percent constitutional cap on property tax increases. The text of the proposed bills were not immediately available. The committee will meet on Wednesday at 10 a.m. The Assembly had not immediately announced corresponding plans to meet. Both houses must pass the budget, and Christie must sign it, by the July 1 deadline. Star Ledger ‘Gov. Christie to review proposed changes to N.J. school-choice bill’ Published: Wednesday, June 23, 2010, 5:10 AM Updated: Wednesday, June 23, 2010, 5:28 AM Claire Heininger/Statehouse Bureau TRENTON — The fate of a school-choice bill backed by Gov. Chris Christie was in flux Tuesday after a sponsor announced significant changes in hopes of winning quick legislative approval. The Republican governor — who has called the bill a first step that could "lead to school vouchers across the state of New Jersey" — said he will review the proposed changes. He also warned lawmakers not to "gut the purpose of the program" just to attract enough votes. Sen. Raymond Lesniak (D-Union) said the bill now limits the pilot program to "chronically failing schools in specific municipalities" based on local legislators’ support, rather than about 200 troubled schools in more than 30 districts. He declined to say how many schools might be eligible, but said districts include Newark, Camden and Elizabeth. "In some respects, it may work even better because there will be more scholarships available in the targeted municipalities," he said. The new version (S1872) would also eliminate an innovation fund that would award grants to improve struggling schools. The money would have come out of a district’s per pupil state aid for each child who got a scholarship. That provision had been championed by Senate Minority Leader Tom Kean Jr. (R-Union), Lesniak’s co-sponsor on the legislation. Kean Tuesday declined comment on the changes, saying the bill is still subject to "an ongoing conversation" to make it "the best possible solution." The program would allow low-income students in "chronically failing" schools to get scholarships to pay tuition at private schools or public schools in other communities. Doled out through a lottery system, the 24,000 scholarships would be funded by corporate donors who would get a break on their state taxes. Critics say it would drain more money from public schools at a time when Christie has slashed $820 million in aid. Lesniak announced the changes at a press conference where the Black Ministers’ Council of New Jersey urged Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver (D-Essex) to support the bill, warning that Democratic leaders should not take African-American voters for granted. Oliver, the first African-American woman to hold the Assembly’s top job, said Democrats have "legitimate concerns" about the bill and she has not made a decision. Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D-Gloucester) said he "will not be a roadblock" and the bill deserves "a sincere debate." He also declined to set a date. "capitulation to the teachers union" — referring to the powerful New Jersey Education Association’s opposition to the bill. "Each one of those members of the Legislature who do not support real opportunity and hope for these children should have to answer for why they deny civil rights to those children and their families," Christie said. NJEA spokesman Steve Baker said the union did not seek the changes and the bill is "still bad policy." "Pulling resources, pulling students and pulling support for public education is not the way to strengthen those schools," Baker said Asbury Park Press ‘Senator: School choice bill should let lawmakers opt out’ TRENTON — A proposed law aimed at promoting school choice needs a legislator choice provision in order to pass the state Legislature, a key sponsor said Tuesday. Sen. Raymond J. Lesniak, D-Union, said his bill that would provide scholarships to low-income students in poor-performing school districts — so that they can attend schools in better performing districts — is likely to be altered so that scholarships would be awarded only in areas represented by legislators who support the measure. In an interview, Lesniak said the provision was not aimed at punishing any legislators who don't support the bill, but to provide an opt-in/opt-out mechanism for lawmakers. Another change will call for school districts to keep some state aid attached to students who leave with a new scholarship for another school. Under the bill as currently written, the state aid money the district would have lost would have gone to an innovation fund, and school districts statewide could have applied for a grant to fund a new program aimed at improving school performance. Lesniak said he was disappointed about having to make the changes but hopes they would boost the chances of passage of the bill. "I prefer the innovation fund, but you don't get what you want, you get what you need," Lesniak said. "What we need is to have scholarships available for students in these chronically failing schools." For example, students in Asbury Park and Lakewood, which have schools failing under the formula in the bill and whose legislators support the measure, would be included in the scholarship program, Lesniak said. The scholarships would be funded by donations eligible for tax credits. Lesniak said he was unsure whether state Senate President Stephen M. Sweeney, D-Gloucester, or Assembly Speaker Sheila Y. Oliver, D-Essex, would support the bill. The Black Minister's Council of New Jersey conducted a news conference Tuesday to reiterate their support for a school voucher program. Derrell Bradford of the Newark-based school choice group Excellence in Education for Everyone said proponents were disappointed by the proposed changes, but he added: "If you can't save everyone, you try to save as many as you can." Jason Method: 609-292-5158; jmethod@app.com njspotlight.com ‘From Senator's Old Neighborhood, Close-up View of School Voucher Bill’ Legislators get down to deal-making as Gov. Christie presses for passage , June 23 in Education |Post a Comment . It is the Elizabeth neighborhood where Raymond Lesniak grew up a half-century ago, the gritty Elizabethport section where the powerful Union County senator first attended a parochial elementary school and then the public high school. Now, Elizabethport is home to the city’s two public schools in the bulls-eye of Lesniak’s controversial school voucher bill, both with high rates of students failing state achievement tests and years of state and federal warnings. Related Links “That’s not surprising that they’re both in Elizabethport, and why we need to throw a lifeline to those families,” Lesniak said yesterday. “Now you know where my attitude comes from.” Under his bill as it now stands and which is suddenly gaining momentum, low-income children at Mabel C. Holmes School and George Washington Elementary School No. 1, three blocks away, are among potentially thousands who could get $6,000 to $9,000 scholarship vouchers toward attending a school of their choice, public or private. That sounded pretty good to Abeafa Amenyitor, as she picked up her three-year-old daughter from an after-school program at School No. 1 yesterday afternoon. Taking classes to be a medical assistant herself, Amenyitor said she has liked the public school so far, and said she worried her daughter’s special needs may prevent a real choice in schools that could accommodate her. But she also reflected a prevailing thought among parents interviewed yesterday in this city where the median per capita income is under $20,000 per year. “Private school is always better than public, that’s where the best education is,” she said. Others may beg to differ on Lesniak’s definition of lifeline, but whatever the term, his bill appears on the move, as it has shifted from lofty rhetoric to that time-honored stamp of real credibility in Trenton: actual negotiation and horse-trading. Under the proposed Opportunity Scholarship Act, a state-run system of scholarships would be provided to low-income students, funded through corporate contributions that in turn would receive one-for-one tax credits. After years of the proposal being blocked from even getting a hearing, Lesniak and others said several amendments are in the works that may ease the minds of legislators -- virtually all of them fellow Democrats -- whose votes have been slow in coming but will be necessary for the bill to pass. He said the new version could come before the Senate budget committee and then the full Senate as soon as next Monday. “It may be imminent,” he said. “I’m hopeful we can go forward in the next week.” Gov. Chris Christie’s has said passage is a priority, declaring Monday that he would not let the Legislature end its session until an approved bill was on his desk. Yesterday, Christie said he was leery about any deal-making in the works, saying he didn’t know its details but that he feared “compromising it away to nothing.” “I’m all for getting people on board, but if you gut the whole purpose of the program, what good is that?” Christie said at a Trenton event promoting his proposal to cap property taxes. But Lesniak said any compromise would sustain the program as envisioned, just maybe starting it quite a bit smaller. Among the discussions, he said, would be reducing the number of districts from which students would be entitled to the scholarship vouchers. Under the current bill, low-income students from 174 schools in more than 30 districts would qualify. The schools are picked through a formula as those where a majority of students fail the state’s tests in consecutive years. Lesniak said a compromise could lessen that number of districts to fewer than 10, essentially allowing legislators to remove their home districts from consideration. He listed schools from Newark, Camden, Paterson and his hometown of Elizabeth as certainties to stay on the list, and said he’d like to include Lakewood, Asbury Park and Plainfield as well. Jersey City was not included, he said. “If they don’t want to participate, they wouldn’t have to,” he said. “But the number of scholarships would stay the same. It would just be more concentrated in certain schools.” Other provisions under negotiation would be new requirements that private schools accepting students be approved by the state, and another that districts not necessarily forfeit all their state funding for students who leave. Whether that’s enough to get key legislators on board is still up for debate. Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D-Gloucester) has yet to take a public stand, but he also has yet to block the measure from moving through committee. Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver (D-Essex) has been more openly critical about the potential cost to taxpayers, among other factors. When fully implemented in five years, the overall cost to the state in lost tax revenues would be $360 million. Oliver yesterday put out a statement through a spokesman that cited the debate’s rising stakes and emotions: "This is clearly an important issue with strong emotions demonstrated on all sides. Many legislators within the Assembly Democratic caucus have legitimate concerns regarding Sen. Lesniak's proposed legislation. As with every issue, I am always open to hearing all arguments and I plan in the coming days to hear from all of the members on where they stand on this issue, but no decision has yet been made on this oft-changing legislative initiative." Critics are also gathering force to try to prevent the bill’s passage, arguing the timing couldn’t be worse when the legislature is about to adopt a state budget with more than a $1 billion in state aid cuts to public schools. The Education Law Center, the Newark advocacy group that has led the Abbott v. Burke school equity litigation, reacted quickly to news that Lesniak was trying to make deals to win votes. "The voucher bill is like Swiss cheese,” said Lauren Hill, an ELC program director, in a statement. “It has so many holes it can't be fixed, no matter how hard and how many times the bill's supporters try. "It's time for Legislators to 'just say no' and reject the use of scarce taxpayer dollars to subsidize private and religious schools without being held accountable to meet the State's education standards," she said. Editorial ‘Stick to the lesson plan: Tie federal school bailout to reform’ Published: Tuesday, June 22, 2010, 5:52 AM Has the Obama administration forgotten what it has learned from the $4.3 billion “Race to the Top” program? In that radical school funding plan, the rules were simple: To get a share of the money, school districts had to agree to landmark educational reforms, like permitting more charter schools and tying teacher pay to student performance. And with that hefty handout dangling, cash-strapped school districts have cast aside objections from powerful teachers unions to reinvent themselves. But now, to save teachers’ jobs threatened by state and local budget cuts, Education Secretary Arne Duncan proposes handing out billions of dollars to states with no strings attached. In a recent column in The Star-Ledger he called for passage of a $23 billion emergency spending bill. Congress balked at adding to the national debt to pay teacher salaries, so that bill died. But the idea of a teacher bailout is being kept alive in a scaled-down version, this time funded by $10 billion in unused stimulus money. Even at the reduced price tag, the plan is badly flawed, because the funding is scattershot and the administration asks for nothing in return. The money would be distributed based on population rather than the number of looming layoffs, so states with relatively few job losses would get money anyway and could spend it on something else. The money wouldn’t save the best teachers, either. It would allow states to decide who stays and who goes according to seniority, as current union rules dictate. At a time when many states — and the administration — are crusading against these archaic rules, the administration shouldn’t spend billions to entrench them. Here in New Jersey the governor has urged teachers to accept a one-year wage freeze. If the new plan wanted to save as many jobs as possible, it would require similar sacrifice. Bottom line: Congress should demand further reforms before voting for the plan and target the money where it’s needed.
Editorial ‘Stick to the lesson plan: Tie federal school bailout to reform’
Last updated: Wednesday June 23, 2010, 6:31 AM Legislators Ready to Act?
Christie Leery of Deal-Making
Critics Decry Timing
