Watch for GSCS Advocacy Packet re school funding formula concerns to be emailed soon – as well as mailed to district central offices – the packet includes:

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ON THE GSCS HOMEPAGE TODAY @  www.gscschools.org

Special Aid loss to districts if aid were based on current ability-to-pay formula
Anticipating that the Administration's school funding proposal was pointing towards 'wealth-equalizing' special education aid, GSCS first released this statewide data listing last fall at its 11-1-06 GSCS Parent Press Conference at the Statehouse.

The Commissioner of Education, Lucille Davy, at the 8-17-07 'Education Stakeholders' meeting last month, finally confirmed that the Department of Education is definitely considering equalizing special education categorical aid. Under the funding system in place in New Jersey for years, categorical aid has always gone directly to students via their special education classification, regardless of where the students reside.

Equalizing this aid could mean aid loss of hundreds of millions of dollars to hundreds of districts, and redistribution of the same dollars by another name within a new formula. GSCS has opposed this potential change of aid type for over one year and continues to do so.

Recently, other school organizations have also registered their sentiment that special education aid remain a categorical aid; in addition the Special Session Joint Committee on Public School Funding, chaired by Senator John Adler, and Assemblyman Herb Conaway also recommended the same in its November 2006 Committee Report; from another perspective, the Special Education Review Commission (SERC, chaired by NJEA President Joyce Powell) also came forth with the same recommendation in its April 2007 Report.
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9-20-07 New Jersey School Boards Assoc. Releases its Report on Special Education
LIVE FROM THE STAR LEDGER: 'Report: Schools need major money for special education' "New Jersey school districts need a massive infusion of additional state aid and state-funded teacher training to keep up with the growing cost of special educational services for students with autism or other learning disabilities, a new report released this morning shows..."

For the full NJSBA report: http://njsba.org/specialeducation/
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9-20-07 With eyes on the future, justices look back at Abbott
STAR LEDGER-'Four from high court urge patience on critical education rulings' ....... "Three decades after the state Supreme Court began dramatically rearranging the landscape of New Jersey education funding, four retired jurists gathered yesterday for a frank discussion of how things have gone. With 30 decisions and billions of dollars poured into the state's poorest districts, the history has been long and controversial..."
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9-13-07Corzine adds school aid to the lame-duck agenda
STAR LEDGER Corzine adds school aid to the lame-duck agenda 'Gov. Jon Corzine said yesterday he wants lawmakers in the next four months to completely revamp the way New Jersey pays for public education. '

"Strickland (GSCS Exec. Director) said the administration has been leaning toward a plan in which funding is based on the students rather than the district, but that has merely been a broad outline..."There is no plan in place, and this process seems to indicate a lightweight debate," she said. "We want this to happen, but we're very concerned...
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Back to School News of Note
Bergen Record: Long way to go for property tax reform Op-Ed, Sept6, 2007

Star Ledger: A new school barometer Friday, September 07, 2007 While it may conjure up fears of Big Brother, tracking students from kindergarten through high school, if properly done, ought to improve education.............................Star Ledger: 99% of N.J. teachers hit 'highly qualified' mark Thursday, September 06, 2007

New York Times: School District Has Dress Code, and Is Buying the Uniforms, Too ELIZABETH, N.J., Aug. 30 — Many public schools are supplying their students with an ever-growing list of essentials that go far beyond textbooks to include scientific calculators, personal laptops and free breakfast….Now they are dressing them, too.

Star Ledger: Higher benefits mean ... higher taxes Tuesday, September 04, 2007

Star Ledger: The tax relief mirage Tuesday, September 04, 2007

Star Ledger: Paterson, Jersey City districts in flux State ed commissioner reserves action…
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GSCS 'QUICK FACTS' Stakeholder meeting scheduled; 22 Charter School applications submitted…..
The next (Department of Education School Funding Formula) stakeholder meeting on the development of a new school funding formula will be held on Friday, August 17th at 1:00 p.m. at the Department of Education, 100 Riverview Plaza, Trenton, NJ in the first floor conference room. The topic will be Special Education. Contact GSCS at gscs2000@gmail.com if you are interested in attending.

The New Jersey Department of Education today announced that it has received 22 applications for prospective charter schools. Applications received by the deadline in the latest round of the Charter school selection process are for schools that would open their doors in September 2008 or September 2009:

http://www.nj.gov/education/news/2007/0809app.htm