Our Children/Our Schools
A newsletter about New Jersey school funding and reform
    January 2007 - Issue 7
In This Issue
Internet Resources

The Garden State is a national leader in school funding equity. Yet not all New Jersey children have adequate funding or access to high quality preschool, safe facilities and other initiatives. And the State still relies too heavily on local property taxes.

Our Children/Our Schools seeks to inform the public debate on these important issues.

Abbott for All! OC/OS Summit Jan. 27
The Our Children/Our Schools Campaign will hold an Abbott Mobilization Summit devoted to the theme: “Extending the Promise of Abbott to All of NJ’s Children” on January 27. The summit will be held from 9am to 3pm at Passaic County Community College, One College Boulevard, Paterson, NJ and be hosted by the Paterson Education Fund. (To register, download the Summit Flyer or call 973-881-8914.)
The summit is designed to build support for a new school funding formula that will preserve and sustain the equity commitments of the New Jersey Supreme Court’s landmark Abbott decisions, and extend them to all children in the state. The conference is a rare opportunity for urban and suburban policymakers, parents, students, school administrators, educators, community leaders, taxpayers, and activists to meet one another, discuss the issues, and work together.
A New Funding Formula This Year?
"It’s a coin flip," whether the next state budget will include a new school funding formula, says Governor Corzine. The rush to put a new formula in place has been slowed, in part because of concerns raised by the Our Children/Our Schools campaign and others over the NJ Department of Education’s flawed education cost study and the lack of time for careful legislative consideration and public review. Political differences over how to pay for a new school funding formula, while delivering significant property tax relief, are also a major hurdle.
Spirited Turnout Fills NJDOE Hearing
Lots of OC/OS supporters were among more than 250 hundred people who turned out on Dec. 18 for hearings on a new school funding formula. They gave the NJ Department of Education (NJDOE) an earful and helped slow down the effort to rush a new formula through the state legislature. The hearings were the public’s first chance to respond directly to the NJDOE’s “Cost of Education” report, which was designed to provide the basis for a new school funding formula.
NJDOE Fails to Release Pre-K Costs
The recently released NJDOE report on the costs of educating New Jersey’s public school children does not include any costs for providing early education to three and four year olds, even though DOE staff worked on determining these costs last spring and summer. As with its 2003 study of K-12 education costs, the NJDOE performed its work on preschool costs out of public view.
Cost Study Shortchanges Students
The NJ Department of Education’s 2003 education cost study ignores or drastically minimizes constitutionally required supplemental programs for poor students. As a result, the amount of supplemental or “at-risk” funding proposed by NJDOE is clearly inadequate to enable New Jersey’s most needy students to achieve state academic standards
OC/OS Delivers Message on Lobby Day
State House, Trenton, NJ, January 8, 2007 – Our Children/Our Schools campaign members met with key legislators as they returned to work for the first session of 2007. Members carried a four-point message: 1) Stop rushing a new school funding formula; 2) Get a new cost study under way; 3) Increase state school aid for 2007-08; and 4) Acknowledge that Abbott funding and reforms are working.
Coalition Advocates for Special Ed Funding
The Coalition for Special Education Funding Reform has recently reorganized in order to monitor current efforts to change state aid for education and other initiatives affecting special education funding and policy. The Coalition seeks a state special education funding mechanism that is adequate, efficient, appropriate, transparent, and fully placement-neutral.
SRA & NJ Graduation Policy
Education Law Center is initiating a research study into graduation policies that could impact thousands of students and hundreds of districts throughout New Jersey. The study is designed to investigate the implications of the State Board of Education’s plans to phase out the special review assessment (SRA) as an alternate path to a high school diploma.
School Construction Needs Repair
The Corzine administration has been fixing past problems with New Jersey’s school construction program, but has been slow to commit to the future. Since last year’s headlines about mismanagement and stalled projects, the State School Construction Corporation (SCC) has made some much-needed progress. However, the additional funds necessary to keep the program in operation have not been forthcoming. Without new funding, the schools our children and communities need will not be built.
Trenton Tackles Truancy
On January 8, Mayor Douglas H. Palmer joined Trenton School Superintendent Rodney Lofton in reporting that a citywide, collaborative truancy-reduction effort last year cut truancy and brought counseling services to some 1,000 families. The campaign was, in part, an outgrowth of advocacy efforts led by the Trenton CHANGE Coalition.
News Roundup
Poor Schools Improving
Jersey's 'sacred obligation' to its children
Passing rates in N.J. school test inch higher
Governor Corzine’s State of the State address
Upcoming Events
Jan. 27 Our Children/Our Schools Abbott Mobilization
Feb. 1 Our Children/Our Schools meeting. For details contact:
lhirsch@edlawcenter.org.
Feb. 8 Washington Township, NJ High School Redesign Steering Committee forum for parents & community on secondary reform

"At its core, a constitutionally adequate education is one that will prepare public school children for a meaningful role in society, enable them to compete effectively in the economy and contribute and participate as citizens and members of their communities."

CONTACT INFORMATION

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