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Linda Nelson, of Scotch Plains-Fanwood Borad of Education and Vice President to the GSCS Board of Trustees, comments on the state of public school funding debate and the Joint Legislative Special Session on Property Tax Reform. Linda has been following the joint committee sessions on funding, as well as observing the consolidation committee discussions.
New Jersey
As I attend the hearings of the Public School Funding Reform Task Force in Trenton this fall, I’m hearing a lot about possible ways—some realistic, some not— to cut local school spending in order to lower property taxes. Unfortunately I’m not hearing very much about maintaining the quality educational system in
Four bi-partisan legislative task forces appointed by the governor have been meeting weekly in
The task forces will meet through October and expect to make recommendations by November 15, with resulting legislation by January 1. Gov. Corzine wants sustainable solutions by then, or he will press for a public vote in November 2007 for a Constitutional Convention.
Representing both the Garden State Coalition of Schools (GSCS), a coalition of over 100 suburban school districts, and the Scotch Plains-Fanwood Board of Education, I have been attending the Public School Funding Reform hearings.
This task force has been hearing invited testimony from experts in the fields of special education funding, school district accountability and monitoring, developing education funding, analysis of educational policy, and merging of school districts. At two of the hearings educational groups were invited to send representatives to sit on panels to give suggestions for ways to contain costs or to make needed changes. News coverage of the hearings has focused on the more dramatic statements and has left out important testimony, so it’s hard to know what’s going on only by reading the newspapers.
It’s also hard to know what’s going on even if you attend the hearings, because there is little or no public discussion between task force members. They ask questions of those testifying, but it’s impossible to know what actually is being considered behind the scenes.
And there has been only vague and occasional reference to maintaining educational quality, always thrown in as an afterthought.
Nor has there has been discussion of how legislators should and must control their own spending, which also has had an impact on local property taxes. Because of a lack of available funds at the state level, in the past five years the state has not followed its own legislation, the Comprehensive Educational Improvement Funding Act (CEIFA), which dictates how schools receive state aid. In those same five years local property taxes have steadily risen in direct response to the loss statewide of billion of dollars of needed state aid.
It is common knowledge that the Department of Education and legislative staff are working to develop a new school funding formula. A new formula would be welcome, since the current one (CEIFA) hasn’t been used in five years. Again, however, all discussions are being done behind the scenes with no public input from stakeholders in
When the task forces makes their recommendations in early November, there will be little time for public comments, suggestions or additions in the rush to pass legislation by December.
What would I like to see being discussed in
• Quality education should not be left out of the debate. Efficiency is only one side of the equation. Effectiveness and educational results must be the other side.
• School district consolidation must be voluntary. Merging does not automatically produce savings immediately, for usually one or more municipalities in the group find their costs increasing. Financial incentives from the state could help communities get over that hump.
• Property taxes in no city or town should have to provide less than 15% of the cost to run the local school district, nor more than 85%. At present 45% of the districts in
• Special education and disabled students should receive state support, no matter where they live. The funding for these students should follow them if they move. This alone would provide huge tax relief to such communities as Scotch Plains, Fanwood,
And the most important point of all? Good public policy is not done quickly and with little public input. Before adopting any law, let’s do enough research to be informed of its impact and avoid unintended consequences and surprises. Changing how we structure and fund education is important enough to take the time to do it right.
