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njspotlight.com (2) articles -'School Monitoring System Issues Grades -QSAC’s three-year review results in hard numbers for 576 districts (Find your disstrict's scores) across the state'"...But overall, the state’s schools did pretty well by the QSAC’s count, with nearly three-quarters of all districts deemed “high performing” for attaining at least 80 percent in all five areas, the equivalent of a B or better.Whether these criteria make for a good school system is a matter of judgment. But if nothing else, it looks like most of them are at least doing what they’re told."
'Another Administration, Another Abbott v. Burke Battle' The Education Law Center takes its epic legal battle to the Christie camp, arguing that school budget cuts are unconstitutional...New Jersey’s Supreme Court has yet to say when or even if it will hear the motion, but the next round of the epic Abbott v. Burke school equity case is already being fought on paper in legal briefs filed with the court..."
Daily Quickie, 07.21.10 - Gannett
"...It’ll cost municipalities and counties in the health plan about 12% more and schools about 6% more; those costs are outside of the property tax cap.
How the $10.5B projected deficit is tallied...It’s the annual academic exercise about how deep a hole the state is facing, presuming it fully funds all of its obligations as written in current law. The state never does fully fund those obligations. It’s been years since it has made a full pension payment. Property tax rebates haven’t been fully funded in almost a decade. The school aid formula is perennially underfunded.
School Monitoring System Issues Grades
QSAC’s three-year review results in hard numbers for 576 districts across the state
By John Mooney, July 21 in Education |Post a Comment
New Jersey’s system for monitoring school districts has been called everything from a paperwork nightmare to a valuable gauge of school effectiveness.
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And no one can deny its bureaucratic bent, evident in the name alone: the Quality Single Accountability Continuum (QSAC).
Whatever the description, the QSAC – launched with fanfare in 2007 – has made available its grades for 576 school districts reviewed over the last three years, with success rates for each district in five areas: Instruction & Programming, Fiscal Management, Operations, Personnel and Governance.
The actual reports should be made available by local school boards, and the state’s website also provides in-depth detail.
But the numbers – the percentage of indicators reached in each area – give a sense of how well districts have met state requirements and guidelines on everything from student performance and budget accounting to personnel and school board policies.
The districts span Absecon to Wyckoff, with scores ranging from Brigantine’s perfect showing to Camden City’s tough report card revealing less than a third of the indicators matched.
But overall, the state’s schools did pretty well by the QSAC’s count, with nearly three-quarters of all districts deemed “high performing” for attaining at least 80 percent in all five areas, the equivalent of a B or better.
Whether these criteria make for a good school system is a matter of judgment. But if nothing else, it looks like most of them are at least doing what they’re told.
Another Administration, Another Abbott v. Burke Battle
The Education Law Center takes its epic legal battle to the Christie camp, arguing that school budget cuts are unconstitutional
By John Mooney, July 20 in Education |9 Comments
New Jersey’s Supreme Court has yet to say when or even if it will hear the motion, but the next round of the epic Abbott v. Burke school equity case is already being fought on paper in legal briefs filed with the court.
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For Gov. Chris Christie’s administration, the argument is simple: State government is in financial crisis and the budget cuts to schools were fair yet unavoidable.
“During likely the greatest budgetary crisis this state has known under its current constitution, the state simply cannot continue to spend as it has in the past,” read the brief filed earlier this month by the state attorney general’s office.
The plaintiffs argue the high court has been clear in demanding adequate funding for all students, and the state’s defense is hardly an excuse for cuts that they said worsen the disparities.
“The time has come for the court to act,” reads the latest brief from the Education Law Center, the Newark-based advocacy group that first brought the Abbott case.
The law center in June filed the latest motion, adding to more than three decades of court battle on how best fund education in the state.
The ELC claims Christie’s and the Legislature’s $1.1 billion in cuts to public schools in the coming year violated the court’s latest decision in 2009, which for the first time found the state’s funding formula to be constitutional but also required the state to match its fiscal promises.
The court has yet to say whether or when it would hear the new motion, likely moving any potential oral arguments and resulting decision into the fall, at the earliest.
The stakes are high, with the state estimating the cost of fully complying with the school funding formula to the ELC’s satisfaction would be another $1.8 billion.
The state in its filing implored the court to stay out of it this time, saying the budget’s deep cuts were done fairly and equitably and distribution of funds should nevertheless rest with the executive and legislative branch.
Christie and the legislature’s limited the historic cuts in state aid to no more than 5 percent of any district’s overall budget, a move that took larger sums out of urban schools but proportionately hit harder at suburban districts, including 60 districts that saw virtually all their aid eliminated.
The law center in its most recent brief highlights that the state does not deny it has underfunded the School Funding Reform Act (SFRA) backed by the court two years ago, and instead “relies on several excuses for its non-compliance.”
“The state cannot mask the stark and uncontested reality that the over $1 billion reduction in such aid below the levels provided by the SFRA in 2009-10 departs significantly from the SFRA formula,” it reads.
Daily Quickie, 07.21.10 - Gannett
http://blogs.app.com/capitolquickies/2010/07/21/daily-quickie-07-21-10/
July 21, 2010 • 6:48 am
By Michael Symons
It’s Wednesday, July 21st, 2010 … busy day ahead in state politics and government.
- The State Health Benefits Commission and School Employees’ Health Benefits Commission meet at Thomas Edison State College to adopt rate increases for local governments’ contribution to public employees’ health care plans. It’ll cost municipalities and counties in the health plan about 12% more and schools about 6% more; those costs are outside of the property tax cap.
How the $10.5B projected deficit is tallied
Posted By Michael Symons On July 20, 2010 @ 4:11 pm In Uncategorized | No Comments
In case you’re curious, here’s the memo [1] about the elements that go into the projected $10.5 billion budget deficit already being projected for FY2012 — that’s the state budget year that begins in 49 weeks, so things could change slightly.
It’s the annual academic exercise about how deep a hole the state is facing, presuming it fully funds all of its obligations as written in current law. The state never does fully fund those obligations. It’s been years since it has made a full pension payment. Property tax rebates haven’t been fully funded in almost a decade. The school aid formula is perennially underfunded.
Still, it’s a number you’ll hear a lot about — including at an Aug. 5th hearing of the Assembly Budget Committee announced today by committee chairman Assm. Louis Greenwald. So here are its elements:
- Fully fund pension contribution: $3.53 billion
- Fully fund school aid formula: $2.3 billion
- Fully fund homestead rebates: $2.13 billion
- Replace expiring enhanced federal Medicaid reimbursement: $1.033 billion
- Maintain funding for transportation construction: $800 million
- Growth in employee salary, health care costs: $400 million
- Fully fund municipal aid: $330 million
- Growth in Medicaid: $300 million
- Fully fund higher education: $275 million
- Replace one-shot revenues in current FY11 budget: $272 million
- Fully fund Senior Freeze, which this year isn’t allowing new filers to receive checks and is freezing other benefits at last year’s rate: $112 million
That’s a total of $11.482 billion projected spending pressures, offset by a projected increase in the state’s revenues (due to growth, without any tax increases) of $1.01 billion. Grand total: $10.472 billion.
Article printed from Capitol Quickies: http://blogs.app.com/capitolquickies
URL to article: http://blogs.app.com/capitolquickies/2010/07/20/how-the-10-5b-projected-deficit-is-tallied/
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[1] here’s the memo: http://blogs.app.com/capitolquickies/files/2010/07/structural-deficit-July.pdf
