On NJSBA website 10-23-07:

School Funding: Finally Heating Up?

October 22nd, 2007 by Frank Belluscio

Over the weekend, an Associated Press report stated that Assembly Speaker Joe Roberts expects “legislators to focus on a new school funding formula once they return to action following the Nov. 6 legislative elections.”  Clearly, the education community has been focused on the problem: The state has not used the funding formula that’s now on the books since 2001-2002.  Since then, there have been only marginal increases in state financial support for schools.

“Our schools need significantly higher levels of state and federal funding, so they can provide quality services without overburdening local property taxpayers,” Edwina M. Lee, NJSBA executive director, said in the AP article by Tom Hester, Jr.  This summer NJSBA issued a white paper, “How a New School Funding System Should Work,” outlining the Association’s positions on school funding and property tax reform.

On Monday, the Garden State Coalition of Schools, the members of which include superintendents, board members and parents in approximately 140 districts, held a news conference to ask the Legislature to establish a new school funding formula for 2008-2009.  As Scotch Plains-Fanwood board member Linda Nelson stressed at the event, it’s been seven long years without a new formula, and local school districts - through the use of property taxes - have had to fill in the gaps to maintain existing programs.  The coalition also issued an executive summary of a study that identified elements it believes should be part of a new funding system - including regular formula aid for all school districts, and a system of efficiency-effectiveness factors.  The group also called for increases in special education aid - but without wealth equalization.

The coalition’s recommendation on special education funding comports with a critical finding in NJSBA’s September 20 study, “Financing Special Education in New Jersey.   The report found that poverty has not been a factor in special education classification and wealth should not be a factor in special distributing special education aid.  NJSBA opposes wealth equalization of special education funding.