Legislation has been introduced in the NJ State Assembly directing an independent study of education costs designed to correct problems with the study performed by the NJ Department of Education in 2003. [Hearings on this new costing out bill will be held by the Assembly Education Committee on Monday, March 12. Details here.]

Assembly Bill 4060 , introduced on February 26th, is sponsored by Assemblymen Craig Stanley and Brian Stack, and co-sponsored by Assembly members Joan Voss, Oadline Truitt, Nellie Pou, Louis Manzo, and Mims Hackett.

An educationally and legally sound study to determine the cost of educating New Jersey’s 1.3 million public school children is an essential prerequisite for developing a new school funding formula. School finance experts and stakeholders criticized a cost study conducted by the NJDOE in 2002-03, and publicly released in December 2006, as flawed and inadequate, with many, including the Our Children/Our Schools campaign, calling for a new study. After three school finance experts hired by Education Commissioner Lucille Davy to review the NJDOE study joined in the criticism, Governor Jon Corzine put off immediate efforts to develop a new school funding formula for the 2007-08 school year.

Assembly Bill 4060 requires the Legislative Services Commission to hire independent experts to "conduct a statewide costing-out study" to determine the cost of educating all students to meet State academic standards, including low-income students, students with disabilities, and English language learners. The study would cover key issues and areas not addressed in the NJDOE study, including:

• Determining the per pupil foundation education cost based on the characteristics of actual – not hypothetical – urban, rural, suburban and charter schools and districts in New Jersey.
• Determining the cost of providing extra programs and services for low-income students and districts with significant poverty rates, consistent with the requirements for such programs established in the Abbott Supreme Court decisions.
• Determining any additional costs to comply with relevant state and federal law, such as the requirements placed upon schools and districts under the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB).
• Recommending ways to improve and sustain the programs, reforms and accountability measures established in the Abbott decisions for Abbott districts and other districts deemed educationally inadequate by the State Board of Education or the Legislature.

The new cost study would examine spending in successful school districts, including the suburban "I&J" districts, and other evidence of best educational practices from panels of educators and stakeholders. The new study also must include "a transparent and public process to obtain input from educators, parents, and the public," including public hearings in communities throughout the state. The new study must be completed no later than December 31, 2007.

Our Children/Our Schools supports the effort to develop a better basis for calculating the cost of a high-quality education for all New Jersey children. Campaign members will be in attendance and will testify at the Assembly Education Committee’s hearings on the bill, currently scheduled for March 12, 2007. OC/OS is also encouraging other members of the Assembly to sign on as co-sponsors, and are urging their State Senators to introduce a mirror version of the bill.

Prepared: March 8, 2007