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STATEMENT by BRUCE QUINN, ACTING PRESIDENT OF AMID
Matawan-Aberdeen School District
GSCS PRESS CONFERENCE 2-20-07
“…If we can’t have a complete, new aid formula, then the members of the former AMID join with GSCS to call for full funding of special education aid through the existing formula and for full funding of extraordinary special education aid for students whose educational costs exceed $40,000. We believe that the state should continue to fund special education and mandated transportation through a categorical aid system.
AMID and Garden State have pledged to work together to make this happen. The Garden State districts have long been seen as leaders in this debate. The new Garden State Coalition, now backed by the inclusion of middle and lower wealth districts, will have even a stronger voice to advocate the needed changes. I am pleased to be a part of this historic partnership.”
The Association of Middle Income Districts of New Jersey is pleased to join the Garden State Coalition of Schools to speak with one voice for the school districts of New Jersey. We cannot afford to divide
We understand the property tax problems that our state and our legislature face. We have lived them ourselves. We attempt to meet the demands for improvement of our schools and for those of us not getting reasonable assistance from the state, we face a greater impact on local taxes than either the wealthiest districts or the poor, Abbott districts.
The school districts in the middle have a higher percentage of defeated school budgets and consequent reductions in planned programs. As a rule, we spend less than the state average but our property taxes tend to be higher. This is mostly due to the inadequacies of the existing formula and the freeze on top of that.
Our organization predicted this school funding crisis when QEA I and QEA 2 and later CEIFA were enacted. By making the basic wealth-based aid, whether Foundation Aid or Core Curriculum Aid, a residual, one you paid after deducting out the Abbott aids and the categorical aids, the amounts became less and less available. As a result, more and more districts failed to qualify for this form of aid.
This has had the effect of making the plight of districts that belonged to
We are taking this step to join now because both groups have a clear understanding of some very important issues.
First, the legislature just passed a 4% cap law on local property tax revenue. While this sounds like an admirable means for tax relief, there is a significant “unintended consequence” of this measure. It hurts poorer and middle wealth districts even more than the wealthier. This is because the true cap for a district will now be based on 4% of what the district local share is. For a theoretical 100% local share district, it would be a 4% cap, but for a 90% local district, with no state aid increase, it is really 3.6%. For a 75% local share district, with no state aid increase, it is a 3% cap. For a 50% local share district, it is a 2% cap. So the “unintended consequence is that wealthier districts will be able to grow their budget to meet the expenses of their district easier than the poor.
AMID filed suit over the funding issue back in the 1990’s and was rejected by the New Jersey Court system basically because tax effort was not constitutionally protected, and we had managed to succeed. It appears that you only get Court protection when you have schools and students fail. We believe there are a number of AMID member districts who will be beginning down that path. In any event, the court directed us to the legislature for a political solution to our problem. We join with
We have been told by the Governor and the Department of Education that there will be no new state aid formula for this year’s budgets. The same thing has also been reported by newspapers as being stated by several legislators. We know that the legislature put in a lot of time working on this problem during the special session, but now we are told it cannot happen.
We need fairness in the basic state aid formula. It must take into account the ability to pay of a local school district. The previous formula had a major flaw in the way income was applied to determine the wealth of the district. It punished districts with low ratable wealth, especially rural districts or districts that were made up of older residential communities. Districts tax for schools on the basis of property wealth and that must be the main measure of district wealth.
If we can’t have a complete, new aid formula, then the members of the former AMID join with GSCS to call for full funding of special education aid through the existing formula and for full funding of extraordinary special education aid for students whose educational costs exceed $40,000. We believe that the state should continue to fund special education and mandated transportation through a categorical aid system.
AMID and
