School aid issue December 1992
What would you pay for a quality education? Some people
think paying more is wrong, especially when it goes to waste. But on their own
kids, they think they have the right to pay as much as they can. But don't let
the State of New Jersey hear you. In the Quality of Education Act of 1990, more
is less and less is more, and poor districts, loaded with corruption and waste
are given more at the expense of "wealthier" districts. And many
people are hopping mad about it, too.
-create a 15-member commission to set up a more permanent
formula for distributing school aid.
--which won't be announced until two weeks after the
election next year-- make recommendations for Nov 15, 1993
-- calls for less spending that the Ewing-Rocco plan
--but more than the one-term proposal pushed by an
assortment of education groups.
NJAPS
-- would increase aid to 30 of the poorest districts by $165
million, including $50 million for school repairs or construction
--Boost aid by $46 million to mostly middle class distractions’
that receive "Foundation aid
-- it would freeze aid to wealthier districts
-- Make the state permanently responsible for teachers
social security and pension benefits about $690 million and expect of grow
about $76 million by next year.
With the recent
Republican-sponsored bill, Secaucus would receive the smallest increase in
Hudson County, amounting to a pittance of $4287, bringing them up to
$1,097,802, though the bill reverses pension obligations, giving them back to
the state.
Assemblyman John A.
Rocco, of Camden, and State Senator, John H. Ewing of Somerset created the
Public School Reform Act of 1992 as a means of helping redress the changes in
school funding brought about by the QEA. Earlier this month in preparation for
sending the bill to the floor of the assembly Ewing moderated the last of the
public hearings with Assembly man Louis A. Romano in West New York, Ewing-Rocco plan was expected to boost state
education spending by an estimated $368 million, but was scaled down to $281
million by the time of its introduction.
It was designed to
cut the rate of growth in aid to the state's poorest schools and prevent all
schools from losing aid over the next four years. It would also cap most local
school spending increases at six percent next year and continue full state
funding of teacher's pensions.
The Quality of Education Act came about in 1990 in
anticipation of a supreme court ruling on a case Abbott vs.. Burke. When the
was resolved the supreme court ruled that the state's method for financing
education was unconstitutional for poor, urban districts. The court order
spending levels for the poorest 28 districts<197>such as Paterson, Newark
and Jersey City <197> equal to that of the wealthy. The court also threw
out minimum aid which guaranteed state aid to all districts regardless of
wealth. The decision said NJ schools are segregated with poor minorities
attending urban schools while white wealthy students attended suburban schools
While Florio's plan
split $350 million in state aid among 28 poorest districts, the court ordered
$440 million. The act began in the 1991-1992 school year with $65 million
divided among those districts. It required the "wealthy" districts to
take on the bill for teacher's pensions and social security, adding to the loss
of aid by a less obvious means. The plan also detailed a four-year phase out of
suburban aid, putting a cap on the amount wealthy districts could spend per
student.
Recently
Urban-Suburban Equal Education Committee from East Orange said QEA would not
help urban school districts, noting that while seemingly proposing reform, innovation
and reasonable solutions, it actually may result in greater inequity. They
supported the Rocco-Ewing bill.
The bill is opposed
by the New Jersey Public Schools Association, which has urged Governor Jim
Florio and Republican state assembly to delay changes in the school funding law
until 1993. They suggested instead stop-gap revisions in the act. These they
said would increase spending by some $428 million or nearly 10 percent and offer
special needs districts almost two times as much as the Rocco-Ewing bill or
about $150 million more than the QEA.
Rocco and Ewing,
however, said the predicted shortfall of nearly $2 billion in the state budget
would not allow funding for the NJPSA proposal.
In a recent meeting
of the Secaucus board of education, members were asked to support Carteret in
an effort at repealing the QEA. Carteret said it will lose $800,000 in state
aid and would cause a tax increase of a $100 per household. While the act was
designed to equalize the amount of money spent per student, Carteret denied
charges by the supreme court that the old funding was discriminatory, since 30
percent of its population was minority.
Board member Dennis
Elwell said talk of lost aid to Secaucus came at time when the school system
already faced a shortfall of $250,000. While the schools have recovered through
good management, the threat of the QEA hangs heavy over them.
"The board at
the time was cautious," Elwell said. "It was very much aware of the
implications."
But he said the
hidden damage came in the guise of local boards having to budget for teacher's
pension, and said the other aid vanishes a little at a time, 25 percent the
first year, then 25 percent each year till it is gone.
He also questioned
the fairness of capping what a town is willing to pay to educate its children.
Former school board
member, Carmen Ross, was very vocal during the QEA discussions two years ago.
He said the tax-base, then expanding, had created an illusion that Secaucus
students didn't need aid.
"Our students
had high performance in the schools and looked very good in the statistics, and
it looked as if we didn't have a lot of needs," Ross said.
He said local
politics disguised the distressful situation. Paper shuffling in Trenton with
the pensions made it appear as if the town had gotten increased aid rather than
a loss, since pension fund figures were now shown in the overall formula when
they hadn't been earlier.
But Ross' views QEA
with suspicion, saying giving money to the poorest districts the way the Florio
plan intended, wouldn't solve the problems of poor education in the cities.
"Student-parent
involvement as well as the involvement of the professional staff is what makes
for a good or bad district," Ross said, whose background is in accounting
and finance. "Money doesn't solve all the problems. Some money is needed.
But the community must be involved." He said the poorer districts lack
such total involvement. "You can set goals, but teachers need backing from
the administration, and the administration needs backing from the parents.
That's the key."
But a new formula
can't hurt, and even a community as involved as Secaucus can be damaged by lack
of funding. Now with the town tax base
shrinking, more look to the state to help keep the town's education at a
quality level.
ross pointed out while it appeared it would get more. Paper translation,
would be pension fund. Send them back money to state for 1.2. Next year send
640000, then to state 1.2 million.
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