Candidate says council should speak up on education issues

By vincent todaro
Staff Writer

By vincent todaro
Staff Writer

EAST BRUNSWICK — The township’s governing body is being asked to urge for more federal aid and school funding reform by a Republican running for the Township Council in the Nov. 5 election, but council members say they will not act hastily.

Former Republican Councilman and current candidate Anthony Riccobono, at the council’s Aug. 26 meeting, asked the council to pass a resolution urging the federal government to start paying a greater share of funding for districts to implement the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). The money is used to educate students with disabilities in public schools, and there are measures before both the House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate that would make the federal government live up to its obligation to pay 40 percent of the education costs for students with disabilities.

The federal government currently funds only about 16 percent of the IDEA costs.

The issue is important to East Brunswick, as the township’s annual school budget has often become the subject of heated public discussions.

Riccobono said passing a resolution is a simple act on the part of local officials to show they care about easing the burden of school taxes on residents. It would also show that the governing body is concerned that students with disabilities are being properly educated, and that it wants Washington to live up to an obligation spelled out by a federal judge in the mid-1970s when IDEA was started.

When pressed on why the all-Democrat council has not passed a resolution, Council President Donald Klemp said he had some follow-up questions that are yet to be answered.

"Simply because you asked for it, doesn’t mean you are going to get it," he told Riccobono.

The other two candidates running on the Republican slate with Riccobono, Christi Calvano and Robert Tagliente, attended the meeting but did not sit with Riccobono or speak on the issue. The trio is running against a Democrat ticket of current Council Vice President Saul Fink and newcomers Cathy Diem and David Stahl.

Riccobono told the council there is bipartisan support in Washington to have the federal government pay its share of IDEA funding.

He said if the government funds its part, it would relieve some of the burden on East Brunswick residents, who have seen dramatic school tax increases over the last couple years.

Mayor William Neary responded by asking Riccobono where the federal government would get the money to support more of the IDEA funding.

Riccobono said it would come from federal taxes, but that he would rather it be paid that way than through local property taxes.

It is unclear, however, where the additional IDEA money would come from, as the federal government has additional means of generating revenue, and could also use business and corporate taxes rather than individual tax funds.

Riccobono also repeated his call for the council to support a statewide constitutional convention to address problems with the way education is funded in New Jersey.

Klemp said the issue is complex, and that there are many ideas about how to reform the school funding system.

"You’re trying to pigeonhole us into one choice, and you’re not going to do that," he said.

Fink said a convention would only be a tool, not an answer in and of itself.

"I think knowledge is power," Riccobono replied, adding that other towns in the state have taken a more proactive stance to support the idea of a convention and bringing about school tax reform.

Councilman Edwin Brautman said he wants to wait and see what Congress does regarding the issue.

"Why not say, ‘Hey listen, we’re the people’ "? Riccobono asked.

"This is a proactive approach," he said later, "and it’s something we should be doing."