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The Record - How much Christie's aid plan would help individual schools an unknown... “Lynne Strickland, executive director of the Garden State Coalition of Schools, which represents mostly suburbs, was cautious about the coming aid figures. “An increase is always a plus… but until we know how it really is going to be distributed it’s hard to get a feel for whether it will be well received throughout the state,” she said. “We’ll have to see what the devil is, if there is a devil in the details.”
NJ Spotlight - Share and Share Alike? Not Christie's $213 Million Bump in School Aid…With one of every three dollars of the governor's budget earmarked for education, schools wait to see how much they will actually receive...State Treasurer Andrew Sidamon-Eristoff said a "vast majority of districts will be getting a slight increase." But the administration also for the first time will be using the state's funding formula in the distribution of aid, he said..."
Star Ledger - Gov. Christie's proposal would add more than $300M to N.J. education budget…“South-Orange Maplewood School Superintendent Brian Osborne, said any increase is welcome, however. "We’re waiting now on what the governor’s determination means for our districts," he said.” The Record - How much Christie's aid plan would help individual schools an unknown... “Lynne Strickland, executive director of the Garden State Coalition of Schools, which represents mostly suburbs, was cautious about the coming aid figures. “An increase is always a plus… but until we know how it really is going to be distributed it’s hard to get a feel for whether it will be well received throughout the state,” she said. “We’ll have to see what the devil is, if there is a devil in the details.” Tuesday February 21, 2012, 8:31 pm By Leslie Brody Staff Writer The Record Governor Christie proposed boosting aid to public schools by $121 million Tuesday and now districts are awaiting the details about how much each will receive. Christie has often charged that the school funding law sends a disproportionate sum to failing urban schools, and has argued more spending does not equal better achievement. Many educators are eager to see if his allocations change the aid distribution among districts. “Our expectation is the vast majority of districts will receive a slight increase in overall school aid,” said Treasurer Andrew Sidamon-Eristoff. The figures, however, are not yet set, he said. Those numbers are due by late Thursday. A spokesman for the education department said the goal was a return to the 2008 school funding formula. That formula calculates the amount necessary to provide an adequate education for each student, and gives extra aid to support programs for students who are poor, disabled or speak limited English. The governor’s proposed $32.1 billion state budget provides $7.8 billion in that formula aid which includes the main pots of state money sent to public school districts. That’s up $121 million from the current year. The cost of public education is the biggest driver of local property taxes in New Jersey, and regularly makes up about a third of the state budget. Including payments for school construction debt, and teachers’ pensions and benefits, the spending plan would boost education funding overall to $11.7 billion. Christie slashed direct aid to public schools by a total of $1.3 billion during his first few months in office, citing the severe fiscal crisis and loss of federal stimulus money. Those cuts prompted many schools to boost class size, eliminate programs and charge students fees to participate in afterschool activities. The budget Christie signed in June began restoring those cuts, by sending $369 million more to the 556 districts not included in a state Supreme Court ruling that covers funding for New Jersey’s poorest districts, according to the New Jersey School Boards Association. Due to a Supreme Court order last spring, Christie also sent another $447 million to those 31 poor districts, known as Abbott districts. Those schools get the lion’s share of state aid under the court mandate that seeks to give poor students a decent education in areas that can’t raise enough local property taxes to do so. Overall, Christie proposed $8.87 billion in total state aid to schools, a pot that includes debt service, building aid, extraordinary special education aid, charter schools and funds for textbooks and transportation at private schools. That figure is $213 million above last year’s. Christie’s plan includes $634 million for preschools, a $15-million increase due largely to higher enrollment, and a $15-million boost, to $37 million, for “school choice” programs that let students enroll in other districts that volunteer to accept them. The budget needs to be approved by the Legislature and signed by Christie before July 1. New Jersey School Boards Association said in a statement that the governor’s new aid proposal “would continue — but, on a statewide basis, would not complete — the restoration of funding to the non-Abbott districts.” Still, the group said it “greatly appreciates” the proposed increase, and would comment further after district-level figures were available. David Sciarra, an Education Law Center attorney who has litigated for years to get fair funding for poor children, said the budget proposal shortchanges roughly 220 middle-income districts, such as Clifton, Dumont, Englewood and Leonia. He said they got much less than required under the funding law, and spreading a $121-million increase statewide would not cover what they were entitled to get. “This budget proposal leaves them in the lurch,’’ Sciarra said. He said Palisades Park, for example — where Christie plans a town hall today — should have gotten at least $1.5 million more in state aid this year under the school funding law, and so should get at least that much additionally in the coming fiscal year. Lynne Strickland, executive director of the Garden State Coalition of Schools, which represents mostly suburbs, was cautious about the coming aid figures. “An increase is always a plus… but until we know how it really is going to be distributed it’s hard to get a feel for whether it will be well received throughout the state,” she said. “We’ll have to see what the devil is, if there is a devil in the details.” Email: brody@northjersey.com NJ Spotlight - Share and Share Alike? Not Christie's $213 Million Bump in School Aid…With one of every three dollars of the governor's budget earmarked for education, schools wait to see how much they will actually receive By John Mooney, February 22, 2012 in Education|Post a Comment To big applause, Gov. Chris Christie yesterday highlighted that his proposed fiscal 2013 budget would include an additional $213 million in aid to public schools, but the cheers may not be widespread when the details reveal how the money is distributed. Districts are to learn today how each will fare under Christie's $32.1 billion spending plan, and although the overall amount in state school aid is going up about 1.7 percent, state officials said it will not be across-the-board increases to all 500-plus districts. State Treasurer Andrew Sidamon-Eristoff said a "vast majority of districts will be getting a slight increase." But the administration also for the first time will be using the state's funding formula in the distribution of aid, he said. The funding formula ties aid directly to the number of individual students and their needs, meaning students with limited English or low-incomes get additional sums -- or for scores of districts, especially those with falling enrollments, a decrease in the money they receive. "There are always going to be student population changes that need to be taken into account," Sidamon-Eristoff said. Districts and their representatives yesterday were not making judgments one way or another on Christie's budget until the aid numbers can be reviewed. And even that is not a final word, since business administrators will then need to look into the details of how money is distributed within the different aid categories. "We have to reserve judgment until we see the level of detail that is in it," said Raymond Wiss, president of the New Jersey School Boards Association and a Northern Valley trustee. "Still, there are a lot of positives in terms of the commitment to education." One area sure to get attention is how -- or if -- the state was going to make cuts to so-called adjustment aid, a pot of $570 million that is meant to hold districts level in the event of enrollment decreases. More than 150 districts received adjustment aid this year, some as much as half of their overall aid. Jersey City receives $116 million in adjustment aid, $50 million in Camden. $36 million in Vineland. But it is not only urban districts: Brick receives $14 million, Toms River $11 million. Another wild card is a report expected from acting education commissioner Chris Cerf later this week that could bring changes to the very funding formula that the state is following. Under the law, Cerf may seek to adjust some of the computations for additional aid for students with special needs, potentially amounting to millions of dollars for some high-poverty districts. Christie has not hid his contempt for the amount of money spent in the state's neediest districts under the Abbott v. Burke rulings. "It is one thing if all districts receive an increase, but if there are 100 that don't, we would have concerns," said Michael Vrancik, the school board association's chief lobbyist. Even the $213 million overall increase trumpeted by Christie and his staff is not quite as advertised, since more than $80 million of the total was in a combination of funds that will not be direct aid to districts. For instance, $68 million will be savings from moving state aid payments from one fiscal year to another. Another $14 million will go to just the districts taking on outside students through the state's inter-district school choice program. In the end, of the total increase, $120 million would be in the direct formula aid to all districts. Still, at $8.8 billion, Christie boasted it was the highest sum ever distributed by the state, more than $1 billion more than when he was elected. And it makes two years of the state restoring aid to school districts, as opposed to the nearly $1 billion in cuts two years ago. "This increase would bring the level of school aid in the fiscal year 2013 budget to $8.8 billion, an all-time record level of investment by our state in our school children," Christie said in his budget address. "In fact, we propose spending one of every three dollars in this budget on education," he said. "We are putting our money where our mouth is." Afterward, Democrats were quick to counter the claim, pointing out that half of that increase was ordered against Christie's wishes by the state Supreme Court in the latest Abbott v. Burke ruling on behalf of 31 districts. The balance of the increase is still only about half of the amount that Christie cut from school budgets two years ago, they said. "That's why you hear frustration from us, when he tries to claim mission accomplished" said state Assemblyman Lou Greenwald (D-Camden), the Assembly's majority leader. "Not only have you not restored funding, you haven't gotten back to where you were in 2008 and we're continuing to lose traction." In other education highlights of Christie's budget: · The budget includes Christie's first increase in direct aid to New Jersey's public colleges and universities, amounting to about a 6 percent increase. In addition, it includes a 10 percent increase in funding for tuition aid grants, the bulk of a $28 million increase in financial assistance overall. "This is the first time we are beginning to turn around," said Susan Cole, president of Montclair State University. "Anything that invests in higher education is good thing. · The governor is proposing the creation of a new Governor's Urban Scholarship Program to provide direct state help to under-privileged children in targeted cities to attend college. It is separate from the proposed Opportunity Scholarship Act, a controversial package to use corporate tax credits to spur scholarships for K-12 schooling. Christie would devote $1 million this budget to the new program. Star Ledger - Gov. Christie's proposal would add more than $300M to N.J. education budget…“South-Orange Maplewood School Superintendent Brian Osborne, said any increase is welcome, however. "We’re waiting now on what the governor’s determination means for our districts," he said.” Published: Wednesday, February 22, 2012, 6:00 AM By Star-Ledger StaffThe Star-Ledger Christie called higher education the "key to advancement" and proposed increasing both the amount the state provides for financial assistance to students and the funding it gives to colleges and universities. "This proposal has many positive elements that will help protect college affordability, access and quality in New Jersey at a time when many states are forced to consider major cuts," said Michael Klein, CEO of the New Jersey Association of State Colleges and Universities. Christie’s budget calls for an increase of $108 million in student financial assistance and aid to colleges and universities, bringing the total spent on higher education to $2.08 billion, up from $1.97 billion. In other areas: • Aid to four-year public colleges and universities would increase by $80.1 million, or 6 percent. Rowan University would get almost $10.2 million more, or a 13 percent increase, the biggest percent hike among the 12 four-year schools. Rutgers would get an increase of $26.2 million, or nearly 6 percent. • Funding for county colleges would increase by $6.6 million, to $212.8 million. • Funding for tuition aid grants (TAG) would increase by 10 percent, or $37.5 million, to $341.4 million. Christie also proposed $1 million for the new Governor’s Urban Scholarship Program for students in economically disadvantaged areas who are in the top 5 percent of their high school class. Students would be able to use the scholarships to attend college in the state. Turning to K-12 education, Christie urged the Legislature to take up his reform efforts — including tenure reform and merit pay for teachers — saying a great education should be "a hallmark of growing up in New Jersey." To that end, he proposed increasing funding for K-12 school districts by $212.5 million, including an additional $120.9 million in formula aid, the money used for textbooks, teachers’ salaries and the other necessities of running schools; $14.6 million more for preschool aid; $14.2 million more for school choice aid; and $3 million more for non-public school aid. In a conference call with educators, Acting Education Commissioner Christopher Cerf said special education funding would also increase by about $46 million, although no details were provided. Total state aid to K-12 schools would increase by about 2.5 percent, from $8.65 billion to $8.87 billion. Though many school officials said they were pleased to see numbers increase, they also said were awaiting additional details. The state has 48 hours to release district-by-district numbers showing how much individual schools will receive. In his State of the State speech last month, Christie talked about the "failure" of the state’s school funding formula which funnels the bulk of state aid to poor districts. Tuesday’s budget speech did not address that, but Department of Education spokesman Justin Barra said a report coming out later this week, detailing adequacy of school spending, would provide more specifics and "discuss the funding formula." Officials at the New Jersey School Boards Association reacted cautiously to the budget proposal. President Marie S. Bilik said the organization appreciates the proposed funding increase, but "before taking a final position, however, we will have to see the details of the aid distribution per district." David Sciarra, executive director of the Education Law Center in Newark, which advocates for urban students, called the budget details "skimpy" and the funding "insufficient." South-Orange Maplewood School Superintendent Brian Osborne, said any increase is welcome, however. "We’re waiting now on what the governor’s determination means for our districts," he said.
TRENTON — Gov. Chris Christie Tuesday threw money behind his promise to support education in New Jersey, proposing in his budget address an increase of $108 million for higher education and a nearly $213 million more for K-12 school districts.
