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GARDEN STATE COALITION OF SCHOOLS
GSCS EMAILNET 2-1-06
GSCS Special Education Aid Advocacy
........On the Homepage Today.......
www.gscschools.org gscs2000@gmail.com
609 394 2828/fax396 7620
GSCS quick facts:
ü Board of Trustees meeting Wednesday, February 8, 4 p.m. E.
IMPORTANT ITEMS ON THE
GSCS HOMEPAGE TODAY
for MORE…www.gscschools.org
2-1-06 GSCS Advocacy - Special Education funding in State Budget FY07
TEMPER PROPERTY TAX INCREASES, HELP FOR ALL STUDENTS...
GSCS continues to advocate for a new school funding formula that is predictable and embodies equitable program and fiscal standards for all. An interim system should be devised to address this year's State Budget for FY'07 - updating special education enrollments with corresponding special education funding to support those students (about 14,800 more pupils in regular operating districts since CEIFA was last implemented) both in special education 'Tier' aid, as well as special education 'Extraordinary' aid.
For the last 4 years, the state has let the entire Tier aid funding support required for the new students to fall on local property taxpayer shoulders; in addition, the state has only fully funded the cost of 'Extraordinary' aid once in that same 4 year cycle. EVEN EXCLUDING transportation & child study team costs (GSCS will provide that information very soon) special education expenditures have grown from $1,779,728,678 in FY02 [the last time special education categorical aid was updated via the CEIFA formula and the last time the CIEFA formula was implemented] to $2,441,393,880 in FY06; an increase of $661,665,202 [37%], for starters. Through FY02 it had been estimated that the state was funding approximately 1/3 of the cost of special education and that 2/3 of the special education mandate was supported by local property taxes. When transportation costs are folded into the costs, the increase which local districts have had to pick up will be even more dramatic. [Costs for this emailnet were calculated using following budget line item numbers: 4800, 6280, 6300, 6310, 6320, 6330, 6340, 6350.]
Tier aid has not been updated either by CPI or special education enrollment growth after FY02 and Extraordinary aid for student costs above $40K since FY04. It is clear that the ratio of state aid for special education has continued to decline steadily. In turn, that decline results steadily rising property taxes.
2-1-06 Commissioner of Education receives extension on Bacon case reports
At the January State Board of Education meeting, the board's Legal Committee charged Education Commissioner Lucille Davy to produce 2 reports re the Bacon case: one, on recommendations for program remediation for the Bacon district students, was to be due today; and the second, on how to better fund schools statewide, was due March 1. This schedule has been postponed for now. At this time, there is no indication of when the reports will be required. It is likely that the Department of Education and Governor Corzine's office need to confer and agree first on the far reaching policy implications involved.
Some Abbott funding history see May 27 1998 - Education Week article on Abbott V court decision
It's time to get it straight: although Trenton often cites the cost of Abbott as being driven by spending in high wealth districts, that statement is misleading and has been for seven years. In fact, in Fiscal Year 2005, approximately $581M more funding over parity was awarded by the state to Abbott districts in 'supplemental aid'. Read this Education Week article to understand why 'supplemental aid', not parity funding, has been the ultimate cost driver of Abbott funding since 1999. "High Court in N.J. Ends Funding Suit" Education Week 5-27
"...In addition, they [the NJ Supreme Court] said they expected the city districts, because of their greater needs, to require an as-yet-undetermined amount of funding above the average in wealthy districts. But they concluded that the required spending level should not be set by the court, but instead be driven by specific needs identified by individual districts and demonstrated to the state..."
More ...
1-29-06Asbury Park Press Sunday Front Page Right..GSCS Parents’ Making Impact
’Schools chafe under law limiting surplus [S1701] Critics: Tax savings won't last’
“...Parents such as Newsome and school officials have worked with the Garden State Coalition of Schools to change 1701 and other school funding issues, said Lynne Strickland, coalition executive director. ..Rumson officials were denied permission by state education officials to transfer money in the budget to hire another fifth-grade teacher after enrollments increased before school started last fall. …For information about the Coalition of Families For Excellent Education, e-mail info@coffeenj.org”
1-26-06 NY Times article re public schools fundraising for private support
"In Public Schools, the Name Game as a Donor Lure" e.g.,"...Newburyport, a charming New England seaport with a lively tourist trade, does not look like a town where the schools would be pressed for money.
1-25-06 Star Ledger 'School District's Woes Point to Rising Tax Resistance'
Highlighting what education officials say is a growing tension between New Jersey's rising school costs and the property taxes that pay for them, a South Jersey school district's failed attempt to raise property taxes to plug a huge budget gap could prompt widespread layoffs... ..."These kind of things are really exacerbated in the condition we are under with school funding," said Lynne Strickland, executive director of the Garden State Coalition of Schools. "Property taxpayers are overwhelmed, while state [CEIFA formula] aid has not been increased for five years."
1-24-06
Read this important article. It is a dramatic example of the conflict brought to a head where the state has not implemented its own school funding law since the 2001-2002 school year, combined with restrictions imposed via S1701. In order to provide a T&E education for its students, Freehold Borough is faced with the Hobbesian choice: having to raise even more property taxes to fund the state's own recommendations to hire additional staff and some of that staff would be classified as 'administrative' which likely would not be allowed under S1701 limits. The state makes recommendations that the borough may not be able to initiate due to already burdened local taxpayer and due to its own law that does not allow for administrative growth. And, what happens to the students who need a T&E education in order to achieve annual yearly progress?
1-23-06
