TESTIMONY BEFORE THE JOINT COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC SCHOOL FUNDING REFORM

Newark, New Jersey

October 17, 2006

Good afternoon, Senator Adler, Assemblyman Conaway and members of the committee.  My name is Elisabeth Ginsburg, and I am President of the Board of Education in Glen Ridge Public Schools and a Board Member of the Garden State Coalition of Schools.  I am pleased to be here today to offer testimony on behalf of the Garden State Coalition. The testimony will focus on the two subjects of greatest concern to both the GSCS and my constituents—education funding and high property taxes--underscored by our common goal of quality education, bolstered by stable communities.

I had the privilege of testifying before you on September 5, and offered a number of cost-saving measures that have already been implemented by members of the Garden State Coalition.  Today I would like to round out that testimony by sharing my constituents’ major concerns about the new funding formula that your committee is charged with creating.

• Quality First: Statistics—including advances in standardized test scores at all grade levels, impressive SAT and Advanced Placement (AP) test scores and the high percentage of high school graduates going on to college--suggest that the vast majority of New Jersey’s districts are performing well.  Any funding formula that diminishes quality education squanders our children’s futures, jeopardizes the State’s business and real estate climate and will cost money in the long run. 
• Equity: Testimony before your own committee has demonstrated how the inequities in the current funding formulae have created polarization in the State’s communities, turning municipalities against school districts, seniors against young families, suburbanites against urban dwellers and the business community against the education community.  At present 45% (a national extreme) of the districts in New Jersey are considered too wealthy to receive regular state education aid, a situation that does not reflect the fiscal realities in many of those districts.  We need to heal the divisions created by the current funding situation and move our state forward with a single funding formula that mandates that every New Jersey student will receive a basic level of State education aid, regardless of where he or she lives.
• Special Education: Special education services are among the most necessary and expensive of any services provided to public school students.  All of our state’s most vulnerable students need State aid, regardless of where they live.  Equalization of Special Education aid would deprive needy students in some districts of any State support.  Do not abandon these children based on assumptions about the relative wealth of their communities.
• Twenty-first Century Solutions for Twenty-First Century Challenges: Those of us working on the local level know that the classroom of the future will provide a much more customized education to every student, whether it is through new methods of direct classroom instruction; accredited, interactive distance learning; or educational experiences provided through partnerships with other districts, local businesses and/or institutions of higher learning.  Those changes are already taking place in many of New Jersey’s districts.  Educators—especially local superintendents--are sharing knowledge and innovation through Superintendents’ Roundtables and benchmarking consortiums through which school administrators reach across county and sometimes state lines to help each other implement best practices.  A stable funding formula for every district and legislative initiatives to end barriers to the sharing of services will enable us to use these innovative and cost-effective tools within our communities.  We know that high property taxes are sapping the strength of our communities and our State, and we also know that the single greatest reason for increases in local property taxes is decreases in aid to local school districts.  A reasonable funding formula has the potential to be the single most important tool that we will have in the effort to lower property taxes.  We ask that you reject solutions like forced consolidation that will cause further polarization and embrace a new, equitable funding formula that will allow us to continue New Jersey’s proud tradition of quality education.