New school funding formula must treat students, public alike

Posted by the Asbury Park Press on Sunday, 11/4/07  BY LYNNE STRICKLAND Post Comment

Public support for public education in New Jersey is linked to property taxes and school funding. The needs of one cannot be realistically addressed without recognizing the needs of the other.

The year 2007 finds New Jersey at a critical juncture in the school funding debate. The state's school funding formula has not been implemented since the 2001-2002 school year, nor have enrollments been updated since then. Where state aid per pupil falls, property taxes rise.

Since that 2001-2002 school year, the Legislature — during the administrations of three governors, James McGreevey, Richard Codey and Jon Corzine — has wound up patching together a tide-me-over scheme of school funding that, on the one hand, relied mainly on property taxpayers to make up the differences in underfunding while, on the other hand, almost singly blaming schools for rising property taxes.

This year, Corzine took a step in the right direction by adding approximately $190 million for regular operating district aid. But seven years of the state not having a stable school funding formula in place is just too long policy-wise, education-wise and property tax-wise. Enrollments rise, the burden on the taxpayer grows and the negative impact on quality education increases.

Today, more than 45 percent of the regular operating districts are now considered too wealthy to receive basic state foundation aid. In California, only 6 percent of school districts fell into this "too wealthy" category in 2005. Middle districts and other poor districts have been caught in the middle, to the detriment of their student programs and resultant increases in property taxes.

To keep New Jersey at a high level of student performance that is nationally recognized, while relieving the high property tax burden, the state needs to develop and implement a new public school funding formula — one that is unified, applies to all students and is fair, flexible, stable, sustainable and responsive to student and community needs alike.

The continuing absence of a comprehensive funding formula exacerbates divisiveness among communities of all types in New Jersey, creates taxpayer anxiety and diminishes quality education over time. With this in mind, the Garden State Coalition of Schools recommends the following framework for a new school funding formula that can work for all students and communities in the state:

The quality of education in our schools must not be diminished.

Within the given context and constraints of the local school district, public school communities will be responsible for the effectiveness and efficiencies reflected in their student achievement and school budgeting.

Citizens of every district should have a financial stake in the children's education. No district should support its general fund budget less than 15 percent nor more than 85 percent through local property taxes.

A town's ability to support its local school budget must be based on a formula fair to all districts. The "wealth" formula should be sensitive to not only the community's local fair share, but also to individual residents' income capacity.

State aid for regular education costs should provide all students with access to programs designed to meet the needs of the 21st century.

Students with special needs and/or disabilities must receive per-pupil categorical state grant aid no matter where they reside.

Gathering of accurate, up-to-date, transparent, complete school finance and district data must be a No. 1 priority.

The formula should be sensitive to enrollments and regional cost differences. This per-pupil formula should be current and updated annually.

Unless a new formula is enacted before the governor's budget message in February, next year New Jersey will enter its seventh year with no formula in place.

It is long past time to bring this conversation out into the light and to have viable, credible public debate about real options and possible formula designs that can and will affect the well-being of every student, municipality and taxpayer in this state.

Lynne Strickland is executive director of the Garden State Coalition of Schools, Trenton, which includes an economically and geographically diverse group of more than 150 school districts.