“(There) is a big spread, and equity is something that needs to be addressed in the anticipated new school funding formula,” said Lynne Strickland, executive director of the Garden State Coalition of Schools, which represents 150 suburban school districts..."

Corzine opts to delay signing property tax credit legislation Friday, March 23, 2007 By JOHN P. McALPIN TRENTON BUREAU Governor Corzine will put off signing the bill creating a 20 percent credit so as to include it in a ceremony marking other measures designed to lower property taxes, aides said Thursday. The deadline for Corzine's signature on the bill was supposed to be today, which is the 45th day after the bill passed both houses of the Legislature. But Corzine is taking advantage of a provision in the state Constitution that gives him more time if the Legislature is not in session when the 45-day limit expires. With lawmakers off on their budget break, Corzine can put off signing the bill until possibly as late as June. Corzine is planning to sign the bill once a legal review of it and other measures are completed, spokesman Brendan Gilfilian said. "The governor has said he wants to do that as part of event," Gilfilian said. Corzine has signed a bill creating a state comptroller's office, one measure he demanded from legislators while they considered ways to cut property taxes. Corzine's office has yet to name a nominee for the post, which is charged with ferreting out government waste and fraud. Other bills passed during the Legislature's special session on property taxes that now await Corzine's signature include a measure to control benefits for public employees and one that regionalizes administrative services at local school districts. "All of these proposals and measures are important to people across the state and important to the governor," Corzine spokesman Anthony Coley said. "He intends to sign these measures sooner rather than later." Democrats who backed the credit program and the other reform measures are not worried about the delay. "Whether he signs it today or in May, they're going to get the check in October," said Senate President Richard J. Codey, D-Essex. The credit program would give most homeowners a 20 percent cut off their property tax bill. North Jersey's median property tax bill is roughly $7,200. The credit goes to residents who earn less than $100,000. Those earning more -- up to $200,000 -- will get a credit, but not the full 20 percent. The program will cost more than $2.3 billion, most of which comes from an increase in the sales tax last year. Corzine has also called on legislators to pass several ethics reforms while the property tax measures are being reviewed. Those include a new law forbidding officials from holding two elected offices, and new campaign finance reforms, such as limits on transfers on campaign donations between party accounts that are designed to evade contribution limits. Assembly Speaker Joseph J. Roberts, D-Camden, and Codey have agreed to produce a bill banning dual office holding before the budget deadline of July 1. Republicans say they should get to work on those and other reforms that are long overdue. "Getting rid of dual office holding is a no-brainer. For us to be wasting so much energy on it rather than the more complicated but necessary task of changing the school funding formula, consolidating and aggregating school districts and municipalities is laughable," said Sen. Joseph Kyrillos, R-Monmouth. E-mail: mcalpin@northjersey.com New York Times ‘Data Show Wide Differences in New Jersey School Spending’ By WINNIE HU and FORD FESSENDEN Published: March 24, 2007 With an average class size of nine, the tiny Sea Isle City school district on the Jersey Shore is spending $33,805 on each of its 90 students this school year, or nearly three times the statewide average of $12,098 per student, according to data released yesterday by the New Jersey Department of Education. A Financial Disparity Some 140 miles up the coast, the Guttenberg school district in Hudson County is spending an average of $7,426 on each of its more than 900 students, having eliminated most of its extracurricular activities because of budget problems. The wide range in spending among the state’s 615 school districts is starkly laid out in the 2007 Comparative Spending Guide, which showed an average per-student increase of 3.1 percent over last year. The annual survey has been released less than a month before state residents are scheduled to vote on their local school district budgets for the coming year. The disparity in student spending has prompted renewed calls from school officials and parents for an overhaul of the school financing system, which critics say has shortchanged many districts while directing the bulk of state aid to 31 poor urban areas identified as Abbott districts under a landmark court case. State legislators have been working on a new state aid formula, but their efforts appear to have stalled in recent weeks. “That is a big spread, and equity is something that needs to be addressed in the anticipated new school funding formula,” said Lynne Strickland, executive director of the Garden State Coalition of Schools, which represents 150 suburban school districts. Lucille E. Davy, the state education commissioner, said of the annual statistical survey, “It serves as a tool for citizens to use now to guide discussions about school spending during the local school budget development process.” Classroom instruction costs accounted for more than half of the total spent on education statewide, followed by support services like guidance counseling and nursing, and administrative costs. Average class size in the state is 19, according to state data. At the upper end of spending are small wealthy school districts like Sea Isle and Avalon, a neighboring shore town in Cape May, which spends $29,982 per student, and the Alpine school district in Bergen County, which spends $21,534 per student. Many of the state’s Abbott districts also spend much more than the state average. Asbury Park schools, for instance, are spending $19,102 per student this year, according to the survey, and Newark schools $17,974 per student. The bottom end includes the Woodlynne schools in Camden, which will spend $7,660 per student. In many school districts, administrators said rising costs of teacher salaries and benefits had pushed up operating costs even as the officials sought to reduce spending in other areas. In the Union City schools — where spending rose to $15,497 per student, compared with $14,635 in the previous year — nonsalary costs have been reduced by as much as 30 percent in the past five years, said Anthony N. Dragona, the business administrator. One of the largest drops in spending was in the Camden school district, which was cited for questionable expenses and accounting practices in a state audit released last month. The district, which has 16,800 students, will spend $12,922 per student this year, compared with $16,904 the year before. Bart Leff, a district spokesman, said the district finished upgrading its computer technology and curriculum and updating its textbooks last year, so it needed to spend less money in those areas. In addition, he said, the district has replaced retiring teachers with entry-level teachers at lower salaries, and relied on state education officials for training and staff development that were previously handled by paid consultants. In Sea Isle, an enclave of oceanfront homes, the school district operates from prekindergarten through eighth grade, sending high schoolers to neighboring Ocean City. “We might not have economies of scale, but we can provide a really personalized education for our students, and there’s something to be said for that,” said Brian Robinson, the acting supervisor for the Sea Isle district. http://www.state.nj.us/njded/guide/2007/ Comparative Spending Guide March 2007 » Browse  Introduction & Description (65 kb PDF )  K-6 Districts (407 kb PDF )  K-8 Districts (1,185 kb PDF )  K-12 Districts (1,185 kb PDF )  7-12/9-12 Districts (376 kb PDF )  County Special Services Districts (174 kb PDF )  Vocational Districts (226 kb PDF )  Charter Schools (384 kb PDF )  Abbott Districts (322 kb PDF )  Transportation Efficiency Report & Summaries (577 kb PDF )  Index of Districts by Operating Type » Search  By Indicator  By District » Download  Zipped excel files (1.12 mb)  Installation Instructions (15 kb PDF )