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ON THE HOMEPAGE TODAY at www.gscschools.org
GSCS QUICK FACTS: GSCS Board of Trustees Meeting November28, Wednesday, 3:30 at the East Brunswick Board of Education. Members welcome. RSVP to gscs2000@gmail.com.
- SCHOOL FUNDING FORMULA NEWS…Preparing for Trenton to release its school funding proposal: Indications are that specifics of a formula may be released within a few weeks; it appears that special education categorical aid is still likely to be ’wealth-equalized’ to some - as yet undefined - degree in the Administration’s initial recommendations…As GSCS has stated for about one year now, that could result in a ‘large shift of aid funding’ away from all types of districts and GSCS opposes…..In terms of the possibility of a ‘hold harmless’ provision being instituted along with a new formula, it is important to note that this kind of provision is not a structural part of a formula, but rather a policy of the moment and thus subject to change in the future.
- FORMULA NEWS UPDATE 11-13-07: Speaker Roberts unveiled his affordable housing proposal today at a press conference, it is important to note that item six in the proposal ties a new funding formula to local municipalities’ commitment to affordable housing …
11-13-07 Affordable Housing Proposal (The entire proposal is posted on the GSCS website) Item six reads as follows:
Ensure new school funding formula accounts for municipalities that accept low- and moderate-income families with school age children
The new school funding formula should provide enhanced funding to school districts located in municipalities that provide affordable housing for low- and moderate-income families with school-age children. Too many municipalities attempt to meet their affordable obligations without providing housing for young families because of the cost of educating additional students (e.g., by constructing age restricted housing or by participating in RCA agreements). Increasing the funding available to schools with low- and moderate- income students will provide an incentive for municipalities to provide this much needed housing.
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Time is short for funding reform It is a goal that worries David Sciarra, executive director of the Education Law Center, a Newark-based organization that advocates for the needs of the state's most disadvantaged students. "This is probably one of the most important issues the Legislature has to deal with," Sciarra said last week. "We need a careful, deliberative process. That cannot be done in a lame-duck session." At stake with any new formula for aid to public schools is the need to reduce skyrocketing property taxes and provide sufficient money for all students to receive a quality education, which prepares them for college and beyond, advocates say. Whether the new Legislature will significantly affect what kind of funding formula is enacted is difficult to determine, advocates and experts say. But the November elections shed some light on the need for school funding reform that should be addressed promptly and not hurried, they add. The state's current funding formula for distributing money to New Jersey's 615 public school districts has not been increased since the 2001-2002 academic year, said Lynne Strickland, executive director of the Garden State Coalition of Schools, which represents about 150 mostly suburban school districts. Last year, Corzine's budget included a 3 percent boost in aid to school districts. Currently, the state contributes an average of about 37 percent to 38 percent to school budgets, Strickland said, calling that "very low." The remainder of school funding comes largely from property taxes. Strickland said the failed rebate question on Tuesday's ballot -- whether 1 percent of the current 7 percent sale tax revenue should be dedicated to property tax relief -- was a message that voters are looking for real changes and sustained relief from ever-growing property tax levies rather than a quick-fix. "With the rebate question going down, I'm observing that the legislators themselves understand the message voters sent," Strickland said. "We need property tax reform, not a short-term answer like a rebate -- and school funding is a big part of that." Meanwhile, to Sciarra and several others, the key concern is state lawmakers will "ram" a formula through a lame-duck legislative session. Both the current and previous school-funding formulas were determined unconstitutional for the state's 31 poorest school districts by the New Jersey Supreme Court in the 1990s. The funding formulas also were rushed through with little debate or discussion, he said. Those formulas are "budget-driven," meaning that state lawmakers decided first what they wanted to spend and designed a formula to fit that number. Instead they should have determined what it costs to deliver a quality education to students everywhere, even in districts with high concentrations of needy children, and then created a formula that distributes enough money to meet those costs, he said. Irene Sterling, president of the Paterson Education Fund, an advocacy group, said if nothing is done in the lame-duck legislative session, a different challenge awaits the newest state lawmakers. "If it kicks into the new Legislature, we have a lot of people to educate," said Sterling, whose organization advocates for one of the poorest school districts, "because a lot of the new legislators don't know a lot about the statewide picture of school funding." Another concern among advocates is that it is unclear how outgoing lawmakers will treat a new funding formula if it comes up just as the legislative session concludes. "One-third of the people there don't have to answer to anybody," said Dr. Jonathan Hodges, a member of the Paterson Board of Education and chairman of the urban school boards committee of the New Jersey School Boards Association. "That may be good, that may be bad." Assemblywoman Nellie Pou, D-North Haledon, who won re-election, said voters made it clear on Tuesday that they want the state representatives to do more to lower property taxes. And the sooner Corzine delivers a funding formula proposal, the better, because it will allow lawmakers to seek public input. But Pou said she also understands the governor's wish to have a funding formula in place before his February budget address. So can it be done by Jan. 8? "It's certainly do-able," she said. But it may not be ideal timing for a thorough public debate. "It's a complex issue," Pou said. "It's important all stakeholders feel they've had an opportunity to weigh in." Reach Danielle Shapiro at 973-569-7153 or shapiro@northjersey.com. |
Corzine admits court is key to school plan
He says funding proposal must win backing
Saturday, November 10, 2007
BY JOHN MOONEY
Star-Ledger Staff
Gov. Jon Corzine conceded yesterday that his imminent school funding proposal will need approval not only from the Legislature, but from another important body in Trenton: the state Supreme Court.
In comments at the New Jersey Education Association convention in Atlantic City, Corzine said his plan to steer money based on individual children's needs is all but certain to go before the high court, which in its landmark Abbott vs. Burke cases has directed additional funds to 31 "special needs" districts.
"That's one of the concerns we've been operating under: What will be acceptable to the court?" Corzine said. "The court has tended to focus on the districts ... but we're going to argue that those same needs are true for children in other places, as well as those communities."
Corzine said he expected to have the funding proposal presented to the public by Thanksgiving, and approved in time for his own state budget presentation in February and local school budgets in the spring.
The governor was vague about what specific parts of his yet-undisclosed plan would likely come under legal challenge. But he has not hidden his hopes to break away from the Abbott designations for specific districts and instead aim additional money at low-income children, wherever they live.
Corzine used the word "Abbott" only three or four times as he spoke to urban educators at the convention for close to a half-hour. But he said his funding plan would not reverse the state's commitment to low-income children, much of it laid out under the Abbott rulings.
"We will be no less committed if we do this right to children at risk as we are today," he told the group. "Whether everyone will love the plan, we'll see. But I will say there is no backing away from our at-risk kids."
Still, whether the Abbott district designations survive is sure to be a point of contention in the upcoming debate, both in and outside the court.
Joyce Powell, president of the NJEA and an important ally of the governor's, said she would oppose doing away with the special status of those districts.
"We need to make sure we retain the Abbott designations and fulfill the Abbott promise that the Supreme Court has insured will occur," she said.
In a related matter, Corzine said that his administration will not shirk its responsibility to meet the court's Abbott order to provide funding for school construction in the neediest districts.
"I think it's almost immoral that we haven't moved on addressing some of the deficiencies," he said. "We have an obligation, and we have every intention of meeting it."
The construction program stalled last year after spending more than $6 billion but leaving scores of projects incomplete. Corzine's administration is already back in court seeking more time to come up with additional funding
The Record (northjersey.com)
School funding tops legislators' list
Friday, November 9, 2007
By ADRIENNE LU and JOHN REITMEYER
TRENTON BUREAU
Lawmakers -- back to work Thursday for the fist time since June -- have some heavyweight subjects to tackle.
They'll likely begin talking about a new school funding formula in the lame-duck session. A discussion of Governor Corzine's yet-to-be-unveiled plan to leverage state assets, such as toll roads, will probably wait until the new session in January. Other topics ahead include family leave, more ethics reform, and whether and how to fund stem cell research now that voters have rejected a $450 million bond measure.
At the State House on Thursday, there were air kisses and hugs all around, along with public declarations of how much people had missed one another over the break.
Jostling for leadership positions was decorously kept behind the scenes. Publicly, Democrats and Republicans presented united fronts in announcing their new leaders, although there was some griping and gossip behind the scenes, particularly among those who wanted to see Sen. Paul Sarlo, D-Wood-Ridge, as the next Senate majority leader.
Lawmakers welcomed three incoming freshmen with applause during their swearing-in ceremonies: Sen. Sandra Cunningham, D-Hudson, and Assemblywomen Elease Evans, D-Paterson, and Mila M. Jasey, D-South Orange.
Among those absent on the first day of the lame-duck session were indicted state Sens. Wayne Bryant and Sharpe James.
By the start of the new session on Jan. 8, there will be 16 new senators and 27 new Assembly members, an unusually high turnover after retirements and a few arrests and indictments. The new class will include a record number of women..
What's new
The Democrats increased their majority in the Senate by one seat to 23-17. In the Assembly, they lost two seats but kept the majority, 48-32.
A record 30 women will serve in the Senate and Assembly.
Evans, a Passaic County freeholder, was nominated to replace Assemblyman Rev. Alfred E. Steele after he was arrested for accepting bribes. She has said she will resign from her freeholder position. Jasey replaces Mims Hackett Jr., who resigned from the Assembly in September after being charged with bribery.
Who's in charge
In the Assembly, Joseph Roberts, D-Camden, remains speaker. Bonnie Watson-Coleman, D-Mercer, returns at majority leader and Joan Quigley, D-Hudson, continues as majority conference leader. Jerry Green, D-Union, will be the new speaker pro tempore, replacing Wilfredo Caraballo, D-Essex.
On the Republican side of the Assembly, Alex DeCroce, R-Morris, returns as Republican leader, Peter Biondi, R-Somerset, continues as conference leader and Jon Bramnick, R-Union, returns as party whip.
In the Senate, Senate President Richard J. Codey will keep his position for a third term. Sen. Stephen M. Sweeney, D-Gloucester, was named the new Majority Leader over Sen. Paul Sarlo, D-Wood-Ridge. Sweeney replaces Sen. Bernard F. Kenney, D-Hudson, who retired.
Sweeney said he would complete his final year, 2008, as a freeholder in Gloucester County where he currently serves as freeholder director, but then would not seek reelection to the county post.
On the Republican side, Senate Minority Leader Leonard Lance, of Hunterdon, will be replaced by Thomas H. Kean Jr., of Union, leading a group of young Republicans said to be looking for a more confrontational approach against Democrats. Lance will serve as the budget officer.
Roberts said the lame-duck session will be used to "finish unfinished business," but not to address any major new issues. That means residents can expect to see the school-funding debate come up before next year's budget, but any vote on the governor's yet-to-be-released plan to leverage state assets such as the toll roads or the lottery system would wait.
"I think the post-election session needs to be used for us to finish unfinished business and I think we need to be very moderate and measured before we tackle some of the more major issues," Roberts said.
"[The voters] made some changes. They reelected some people and they elected some new faces and they want them to weigh in on some of the larger issues."
"There are some issues that are time-sensitive and the school-funding formula may be one of them," he said.
Likewise, Codey said the governor's "asset monetization" plan would not be taken up during the lame-duck session.
"We will try to take up the issue of the new school funding formula," he said. "We'll probably take on the issue of whether or not we want to do away with the death penalty, look at issue of paid family leave."
He said he was hoping for votes on all of those issues by the end of the year.
This article contains material from news service reports. E-mail: lu@northjersey.com
