New School Funding Formula Passes

[andrewd]

Well...it has passed...

www.thedailyjournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2008801080310

Legislature passes bill for school funding
By JONATHAN TAMARI
Gannett State Bureau
[e-mail]

TRENTON -- Gov. Jon S. Corzine's new school funding plan won narrow approval in the Senate and Assembly Monday, handing him a slim victory that sharply divided his fellow Democrats.
The vote is considered a defeat for urban districts like Vineland and Millville, but a victory for suburban school systems like Buena Regional.



The bill received 41 "yes" votes in the Assembly -- the minimum needed for passage -- and won support from 23 senators after a roughly three-hour vote and much behind-the-scenes wrangling.

In the end, Democrats agreed to add $20 million of special education funding to the $7.8 billion plan to help win over three Republicans who gave the bill its final push to pass the Senate. Before the change, it had only 20 of the 21 votes needed for approval.
The new plan will ensure state aid increases of between 2 percent and 20 percent for every district in the state and add roughly $550 million in new spending to help fund schools and offset local property taxes. But urban lawmakers said the plan will help the middle class at the expense of the poor and was rammed through the Legislature with little time to review the details. All six black senators opposed the plan.

The new education funding formula, which determines how the state doles out aid to schools, could impact education and property taxes for years and will almost certainly face a court challenge from the 31 poor, urban districts that have benefited from Supreme Court rulings mandating enhanced education funding for those areas.

"This legislation will ensure that all children, in every community, have the opportunity to succeed," said Sen. Barbara Buono, D-Middlesex, one of the plan's sponsors.

Corzine and his backers say the new formula will treat every school district by the same criteria and especially help middle class districts whose state support has remained stagnant even while their enrollment and number of needy students have grown.

But urban lawmakers said the 2 percent aid increases many city school districts would receive this year and flat funding in the future would force tax hikes or education cuts in impoverished districts.

"There's nothing wrong with middle-income places getting more money ... but it ought not to be at the expense of those who are already in dire need," said Sen. Wayne Bryant, D-Camden.

[fiberisgoodforyou]

.."The new plan will ensure state aid increases of between 2 percent and 20 percent for every district in the state and add roughly $550 million in new spending to help fund schools and offset local property taxes"...GREat

New funding formula is needed, however....

Where is the $550 million coming from? Are there other programs from where this money will be re-directed?

And what of the "RICH Abbott and Rim Districts", There are Abbott's like jersey City, Hoboken, New Brunswick....that no longer qualify, yet are still on the books as Abbott's.

As predicted, this $7 billion dollars worth of spending was rushed through without thorough explanation about where this money of coming from.

Spend first generate the funds later.

The silver lining...the Borough K-8 will be getting back into the Thorough and Efficient box the first time in a few years. Plus the potential for the one time added funding from the Bennett street building sales, the tension at schools should be relaxed a bit.

Maybe this will help convince a few good families to stick around the Borough a little longer!

Remember, our kids get to got to one of THE best High Schools in the state!

[fiberisgoodforyou]

This is part of a long range plan to re-org and re-align the States Schools Systems...

Next, lets hope later year, there will be a movement to eliminate all Schools Districts that "DO NOT HAVE SCHOOLS". Yes there are districts in NJ that have a School Board, who receive state AID, yet these districts have no schools, no building no faculty. All students from these districts are bused to local "SCHOOL DISTRICTS WITH SCHOOLS".

After that it gets ugly...

NO MORE K-8's. This will mean mandated School District Mergers... ;D. The state dept of education will mandate that district re-align to form K-12s and that the economy of scale address minimum 3K-5K student population. So districts will be ONLY K-12 with a student body no less than 3K students (may end up 5K students).

Mean time ...The NEW County "Super" SuperIntendants will gain more powers over the local school districts!

[richardkelsey]

fiberisgoodforyou said:

.."The new plan will ensure state aid increases of between 2 percent and 20 percent for every district in the state and add roughly $550 million in new spending to help fund schools and offset local property taxes"...GREat

New funding formula is needed, however....

Where is the $550 million coming from? Are there other programs from where this money will be re-directed?

And what of the "RICH Abbott and Rim Districts", There are Abbott's like jersey City, Hoboken, New Brunswick....that no longer qualify, yet are still on the books as Abbott's.

As predicted, this $7 billion dollars worth of spending was rushed through without thorough explanation about where this money of coming from.

Spend first generate the funds later.

The silver lining...the Borough K-8 will be getting back into the Thorough and Efficient box the first time in a few years. Plus the potential for the one time added funding from the Bennett street building sales, the tension at schools should be relaxed a bit.

Maybe this will help convince a few good families to stick around the Borough a little longer!

Remember, our kids get to got to one of THE best High Schools in the state!

In 1994, I wrote a nice op-ed on the Asbury Park Press on the issue of a "thorough and efficient" education in New Jersey. (I still lived in New Jersey, and I guess that made my opinion then legitimate).

The fundamental problem in New Jersey is that three entities have been controlling the means by which education is distributed and monitors. Those three each have an interest, though it is not clear there primary interest is providing a "thorough and efficient" education.

First -- the NJEA is the most powerful political organization in New Jersey. As unions go -- they make the teamsters look like sissys.

While many great teachers are not only interested in great education and have committed their lives to it -- the Union is interested in building the union and consolidating power by growing the education industry -- rather than performance.

Likewise, the New Jersey Department of Education is a bureaucratic entity interested primarily in its own power and growth, and is often a tool of political agendas.

Third, and these folks have ruined just about everything, the New Jersey Legislature -- oops -- I mean the New Jersey supreme legislative Court has spent years twisting the law and writing education law based upon what it believes thorough and efficient means. The Courts do not belong in the schools. Frankly, your schools would be better off if they let God in and kicked the Courts out. (Just some political hyperbole -- but you get the sentiment.)

The people -- through the legislature -- needs to take back the schools, de-regulate them, redefine the state promise on what is a "thorough and efficient" education, break the union and reward strong, innovative teachers, empower principals, offer choice, reduce admin, and begin putting more dollars toward instruction and early intervention.

Until those monumental tasks are done -- NJ is just moving money around in apolitical ponzi scheme not designed to actually provide a thorough and efficient education. Right now, the system is designed to bring political reward to whomever it is that claims they have done something to provide a thorough and efficient education. Education needs to be delivered to children, not served for political purposes.

[adefonzo]

For the record...since Holly asked on another thread (wanted to post it here since it seemed to make more sense)...all three of our state representatives, Senator Karcher, Assemblywoman Beck, and Assemblyman Panter voted in favor of the new school funding formula.

[adefonzo]

adefonzo said:

For the record...since Holly asked on another thread (wanted to post it here since it seemed to make more sense)...all three of our state representatives, Senator Karcher, Assemblywoman Beck, and Assemblyman Panter voted in favor of the new school funding formula.

I was apparently not entirely correct...

See if you can follow this (I know my head is spinning from it all)...

There were two identical bills, A500 and S4000. According to the state legislative website, yesterday, the senate voted to "motion to table" their bill (S4000) in favor of the assembly bill (A500).

Then, there was the vote on the A500 bill in the Assembly...

When looking at the legislative website, it listed a "3rdg final passage" roll call, which showed that Jennifer Beck voted "Yes". Again, looking at the website, since that was the only vote that was held in both the senate and the assembly, I assumed it was the final vote on the legislation. Apparently it was not.

For the Assembly, there is also a vote listed as "motion tab motion" (I have no idea what this means), and it was under this vote that Jennifer Beck voted "No".

Mike Panter voted "Yes" under both votes.

Ellen Karcher voted "Yes" under the "3rdg final passage" for A500, and (just FYI) "Yes" to table S4000.

I am looking into getting some clarification on what the different votes were for., but it would seem that the "motion tab motion" was just a motion to table the bill, which Jennifer Beck voted "no" on, but then in passage of the bill, she voted yes...though admittedly, I am not entirely sure.

[adefonzo]

For anyone who is curious...I have decifered the riddle...all three of our State Representatives did in fact vote in favor of the new funding formula