Glen Ridge Public Schools

Board of Education

SUSTAIN OUR SCHOOLS

UPDATE—1/14/08

SCHOOL FUNDING FORMULA SIGNED INTO LAW ON JANUARY 13

Far-Reaching Proposal Introduced, Vetted and Passed in Just Twenty-Six Days During the Christmas/New Year Holiday Period

THE SITUATION NOW

The Governor’s funding formula legislation (S4000/A500) was passed by both houses of the New Jersey Legislature on January 7, 2008, the last day of the “lame duck” legislative session. In both houses, the legislation passed by the narrowest possible margin. The debate/vetting process was extremely limited, as was any opportunity for public input/comment. Glen Ridge Superintendent Dan Fishbein and BOE President Betsy Ginsburg attended a full day of legislative hearings on the formula and submitted testimony on behalf of the Garden State Coalition of Schools. Dr. Fishbein and Mrs. Ginsburg also spent ninety minutes with Senator Nia Gill, Assemblywoman Sheila Oliver and Assemblyman Tom Giblin discussing concerns about the new formula. All three legislators voted against the legislation on the g rounds that it was being passed without sufficient study/analysis/debate and had potentially serious adverse consequences for many middle class districts.

Despite the truncated nature of the legislative process, the Garden State Coalition and other advocacy groups were able to insert amendments that softened some of the formula’s impact on districts like Glen Ridge.

The following addresses the most frequently asked questions about major aspects of the formula and its impact on Glen Ridge.

WHAT’S GOOD ABOUT THE NEW FORMULA?

The formula replaces the former two-tiered system by which thirty-one of the state’s poorest school districts (known as the “Abbott Districts) received aid according to parameters established by the New Jersey Supreme Court and all other regular operating districts received aid under the CEIFA formula. (CEIFA has not been run since 2002.) The new formula applies to all the state’s districts, increases aid for poor, non-Abbott District students and extends aid for early childhood education to a large number of poor children. It also establishes a new category of state aid called “Security Aid.”

THE SHORT-TERM IMPACT ON GLEN RIDGE

• All districts will still be subject to a 4% cap on the property tax levy and a 2% fund balance (surplus) cap. “Cap waivers,” or exceptions allowing districts to increase the levy by more than 4%, will be severely limited.
• Glen Ridge will receive only miniscule property tax relief
• The new Executive County Superintendent still has line-item veto power over all school district budgets and a mandate to reduce costs.
• For the 2008-2009 school year, Glen Ridge will receive an extra $114,000 in state aid, a 10% increase over 2007-2008. However, about $90,000 of that aid is slated to go directly to taxpayers and cannot be used in the classroom. This “rebate” will amount to about $39.00 per household. The remainder of the aid is in categorical form and must be used for Special Education, transportation and security.
• Glen Ridge is one of about 120 school districts deemed to be spending “above adequacy,” according to new figures established by the DOE. The adequacy calculations are based on the DOE’s determination of what an adequate primary school education should cost per pupil per year. Additional “weights” or dollar increments are added to the adequacy amount to accommodate increased educational costs for middle and high school students and those in various special needs categories including “at risk”, high poverty, limited English proficiency and special education. The DOE determines each district’s “adequacy budget” by adding up the adequacy amounts for pupils in that district. According to the DOE Glen Ridge is one of many districts currently spending above its state-determined adequacy budget and taxing residents above what the state has determined to be the “local fair share.” (N.B.: Local property taxes have risen sharply due to dramatic cuts in state aid over the last twenty years and the fact that state aid funding has been essentially flat since 2002.)
• While Glen Ridge educates about 90 Pre-K students each year, the DOE does not count them in its calculations of our student population. (Our full-day kindergarteners are counted in the most recent DOE enrollment figures released in late December.) Because our actual student population, including Pre-K, is not factored into the DOE’s student population totals, we appear (on paper) to be spending more per pupil than we really spend. This is partially why the DOE has determined that we are spending over our district “adequacy budget” and why, consequently, the state require us to return aid the majority of our 2008-2009 aid increase directly to taxpayers.

THE LONGER TERM IMPACT ON GLEN RIDGE

• Glen Ridge is still deemed “too wealthy” to receive any basic educational aid.
• For Glen Ridge and other districts that the DOE believes are spending “above adequacy,” all future state aid increases that exceed either 2% of the previous year’s aid or the CPI percentage (whichever is higher) must go for direct taxpayer relief.
• There are no guarantees that our state aid will not be reduced after the 2010-2011 school year and only limited, non-binding assurances that we will not be flat-funded or even have our funding reduced after the 2008-2009 school year
• Under the new plan, two thirds of all Special Education Aid will be wealth-equalized; the rest will remain categorical and will “follow the child” regardless of district wealth. All Special Education Aid was categorical and “followed the child” under the old formula. Glen Ridge is now deemed “too wealthy” to receive any wealth-equalized Special Education Aid. We will receive the much-reduced categorical aid. This will eventually result in less Special Education Aid for mandated programs and services.

WHAT CAN WE DO?

Many people have suggested privatizing our schools, which is not a viable option for many reasons. We and our advocacy groups, the Garden State Coalition of Schools and the New Jersey School Boards Association have already begun work to devise new strategies for coping with the current legislative environment and securing amendments to the formula that will provide more resources to our districts and real tax relief to our taxpayers. The passage of the new funding formula marks the end of one era and the beginning of another: it does not mark the end of the fight for equitable school funding. For further information or explanations, please e-mail eginsburg@glenridge.org.