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GARDEN STATE COALITION OF SCHOOLS/GSCS
PRESS RELEASE
(Contact: Lynne Strickland, Executive Director, 732 618 5755, 732 996 9016)
GOVERNOR CORZINE BUDGET MESSAGE 2-22-07
Overall, GSCS welcomes the direction the Governor is taking by adding direct school aid for all schools to the FY07-08 Budget.
While this budget indicates a positive beginning, it will be the follow through that counts. We believe the intent demonstrated today can only be affirmed by state leadership providing our schools with a new funding formula; an actual formula plan should be released within this calendar year so that a fair and open debate on the formula is enabled. It is only a formula that can provide stability and predictability for schools and communities statewide, and it is only the state that can make the choice to support that formula with the funding it requires.
The Garden State Coalition of Schools reaction to school aid aspects in the Governor’s budget message follow:
Positives are
With the addition of 300M direct state aid in the budget for schools, the Governor’s proposed budget acknowledges that
Regular operating school districts (Non Abbotts) and their taxpayers have been shortchanged in recent years.
The state has a role and a responsibility to support lower to middle to higher wealth school communities; the aid directed to our schools is a nod in the right direction and tells us that
The funding of full day kindergarten programs already in existence demonstrates the state’s commitment to the import of earlier childhood education.
In funding concentrations of at risk children, the state recognizes the changing demographics in
Concerns are
What about the cost of special education? The budget does not address the rising general costs of special education for the 6th year in a row; it does not address the moving target “extraordinary” costs of individually disable children, our most vulnerable, that are in excess of $40K per pupil. By its own legislated promise, the state has abandoned picking up its share of those costs for several years in a row now. Last year that difference in the excess costs over the $40K level, amounted to approximately $120 that fell to local taxpayers to support.
School construction needs are not addressed.
