School funding shift denounced

[fiberisgoodforyou]

School funding shift denounced
by Lisa Rich/The Times
Monday January 07, 2008, 1:32 PM
www.nj.com/centraljersey/index.ssf/2008/01/school_funding_shift_denounced.html
TRENTON -- Education officials and parents from Abbott school districts across the state rallied Monday in protest of the governor's proposed $7.8 billion school funding formula.

Calling Gov. Jon Corzine's draft formula unconstitutional, officials from Trenton rallied at the State House with their Abbott peers from Newark, Asbury Park, Jersey City and Paterson. Corzine's formula shifts away from the state's tradition of sending most school funding to Abbott schools. Instead, more money would be given to middle- and upper-class districts, which have faced significant enrollment growth or increases in special-needs students.

It's unconstitutional, and it fails to solve our state property tax problem," said Juan Martinez, a parent liaison in Trenton who helped organize the rally. "In Trenton, this formula would be very devastating for us. It would again force cuts in programs, which lowers the quality of education. We have to fight for our future."

The Senate and Assembly are expected to discuss the formula Monday, and a vote may take place.

[fiberisgoodforyou]

and then there is this...Our Children/Our Schools Campaign

www.ourchildrenourschools.org/pdf/OCOSStopLameDuckPassage.pdf


Our Children/Our Schools Campaign
Stop a Rushed and Ill-Informed Vote On Corzine's Flawed School Funding Plan!

Call your NJ Legislative Representatives and Tell Them: No Vote in Lame Duck Session! So Many Changes, So Many Unknowns, So Little Time...

On Friday, Nov 30, Governor Corzine introduced the outline of his education funding plan. Aid numbers will be provided by Dec. 12.

Corzine promises that most of the state’s districts will get more money next year. He promises that in years one and two, there will be "hold harmless" money for those districts slated to suffer cuts in aid. Much remains unclear about how it will work, and what happens in year three, when the “hold harmless” aid disappears. Corzine isn’t saying. What we do know is cause for serious concern:

The Plan “Levels Down”
• Reliable sources indicate a defined per-pupil adequacy cost of $10,200 per pupil -- $1,220 (11%) below the current foundation funding level and $1,704 (17%) below the I/J average. The plan is intended to strangle increases in all districts – irrespective of actual needs -- and “level down” education in the high-spending districts. Cuts in staff and larger class sizes will surely result.
• Abbott protections will be abolished. Funding this year will be flat at best. Many proven Abbott programs will be lost, such as tutoring, afterschool, summer school, parent outreach and secondary reform -- just when so many children were making observable progress and we were learning what really works. Cuts in classroom staff and larger class sizes will follow.
• Wealthy districts will lose entitlement to aid for at-risk children, special education, etc. as these and other categorical aids are subjected to the wealth-equalizing “local share” calculation. It is likely that larger class sizes in regular education classes will result as districts are forced to shift existing resources to meet special education legal mandates. Less aid coupled with tax caps will drive cuts in program and educational quality.
• All districts face major reductions in special education aid from provisions that would reduce a district's headcount for the aid calculation to the extent a district’s classification rate is above the state average.
Impact for Decades to Come. Get It Right From the Start.

Changes to our state's education funding will have a major impact on children and taxpayers for decades. They can determine which communities flourish and which ones decline. Corzine's proposal has some positive elements (including new support for DFG A&B districts and promised funding for expanded early childhood education). But there are too many troubling concerns about how it will work. What unknown negative side-effects are lurking in the still-secret parts of the proposal? Legislators have an obligation to ensure full public scrutiny and analysis. This must not pass in the few short weeks left in the current lame duck legislative session.

Do the Right Thing – Avoid the Lame Duck Rush to Vote Corzine wants to rush this through in the remaining few weeks of the “lame-duck” legislative session which ends on Jan. 8 -- before anyone knows what’s hit them. Legislators can’t possibly know or understand what they’re voting for! We've seen this before. Past
school funding measures were all rushed to a vote, with little scrutiny or debate and the Supreme Court found each of them unconstitutional because they simply didn’t meet students’ needs.

Major organizations across the state are saying – “DON’T RUSH THIS THROUGH IN LAME DUCK.” Join us. Call your state senator and two assemblypersons today and register your opposition to this bum's rush into another flawed school funding proposal!

See the next page (http://www.ourchildrenourschools.org/pdf/OCOSStopLameDuckPassage.pdf) for information on how to call your legislators and suggested talking points. You can make a difference. Legislators do pay attention when lots of their constituents are concerned.

Our Children/Our Schools Campaign
Email us at: [e-mail]
or see our website at: www.ourchildrenourschools.org

(THEIR) SCRIPTED TALKING POINT(will make you have a conniption....)
Key points to make to legislators:
1. Slow down and think -- analyze and understand all the impacts before you vote, especially what happens
in years three through five! You can't possibly know what you're voting for until you do so.
2. Don't pass this in the lame duck session. You need to hear and respond to all constituent concerns.
3. Don’t level down – you should instead level up to I/J standards.
4. Support – don’t penalize – successful special education districts that attract families.
5. Make sure the plan meets educational needs in the suburbs and cities.
6. The "T&E adequacy amount" must be based on a rational, fully published cost model that uses actual
market costs for teachers, fuel costs and all other resources that districts require.
7. Making believe that needs don’t exist won’t make those needs go away.
8. Remember, TAX CAPS + EVENTUAL AID CUTS = INCREASED CLASS SIZE!

[adefonzo]

Fiber...have you been sleeping??? The bill passed earlier this week...kinda late for these articles, no??

By the way, I do agree with one thing that Juan Martinez said in the first article...this new funding formula certainly "fails to solve our state property tax problem"

Would you believe I am still trying to get through the whole document?? This is why I am not a lawyer...Rich, you guys sure can put a whole bunch of words together that really don't say anything that conclusive!!

[fiberisgoodforyou]

Andrew..You missed the point, look at the 2nd post.

The Abbott's are going to make a big splash (or crash)with a supreme court challenge, also...READ the "talking Points" issued buy the Abbott Advocates. SURREALISTIC

Lets just PRAY, that a challenge will reach the Supreme Court.. If, or rather when, they challenge to the new formula, and the case is defended by the state correctly, this case will backfire on the ABBOTT's... and we can hope, put a complete end to the todays Abbotts-Rim and Non Abbott/Suburban district funding structure

GO on. ask me why( :-P ) OK I will tell you why (glad you asked). Abbott's will have to explain (they should be made to) to the court what the heck they have been doing with the all the billions of tax payers money over the last 20 years, and this will will prove that MANY Abbott's have not been honest, not been accountable, and this highly probable supreme court action must expose layers and layers for fraud, graft, missing money and flagrant ripping off of our money. (I just edited about 5 lines of additional Negative Malcontent Abbott ranting),

SO the implementation of the new funding formula is not over yet.

Tis is JUST the start of something that will be fought over for the next year, and maybe into the Next Gov Race!...WATCH as it all unfolds before your eyes....

adefonzo said:

Fiber...have you been sleeping??? The bill passed earlier this week...kinda late for these articles, no??

By the way, I do agree with one thing that Juan Martinez said in the first article...this new funding formula certainly "fails to solve our state property tax problem"

Would you believe I am still trying to get through the whole document?? This is why I am not a lawyer...Rich, you guys sure can put a whole bunch of words together that really don't say anything that conclusive!!