By: Cara Latham
Legislators in the 30th District are leading a statewide petition drive asking Gov. Jon Corzine to fully fund public education.
Local officials say they think a lot of residents will support the move sponsored by Assemblymen Ron Dancer and Joe Malone and Sen. Robert Singer and come out to sign the petitions.
Most school districts have been shortchanged in the past five years by a total of about $2.2 billion, said Mr. Malone in a press release.
Mr. Dancer, who is also the mayor of Plumsted, said in a phone interview last week that so far, people have responded "very favorably" and that a number of sheets have already been filled out by people in the township.
In addition to making the petitions available at the municipal level, Mr. Dancer said, he sent the petitions to Plumsted Township Schools Superintendent Jerry North, who will also collect signatures.
"We’re trying to insinuate the importance of the voice of the people being heard," Mr. Dancer said. "What’s happening is you have a situation where of the $10 billion in state aid, 31 inner city special needs Abbott districts are receiving 50 percent of the aid, while the remainder is divided among 582 school districts. There needs to be an equitable and fair distribution of existing revenues, which we don’t have."
Mr. Dancer also said that a report by the state commissioner of education revealed that "there were a number of school districts, who according to their own calculations, no longer qualify for this Abbott aid."
Toward the end of the state’s budget hearings, probably around May, the three legislators will personally deliver the petitions to the governor and have a meeting with him, Mr. Dancer said.
"This is not a Democrat or Republican issue," he said. "This is a funding issue for the children in our state."
The legislators are calling for a new school funding formula to be in place for the 2007-08 school year, Mr. Dancer said.
Even further, Mr. Dancer said that while there has been flat state aid to suburban school districts for the past five years, "they found additional state aid for contiguous, neighboring school districts that border the 31 special needs districts."
"It just adds insult to injury that not only did the 31 school districts receive 50 percent of the school aid, but their neighbors … received the incremental funding at the expense of the rural suburban school districts," he said.
Jon Zlock, a spokesman for the state Department of Education, said the department’s work on a new funding formula is ongoing, but that he could not comment further on the issue.
However, Gov. Corzine and DOE Commissioner Lucille Davy have been in have said that "it doesn’t appear that we will have it for this upcoming school year," but there is hope that it will be in place for the following year, Mr. Zlock said.
Millstone Mayor Nancy Grbelja said she thought that citizens "certainly would" support the efforts and sign the petitions, especially in the township, where 75 percent of the taxes go to the school district.
"Any increase in funding would certainly benefit the residents," she said.
However, she said she didn’t think the petition drive would be as effective as a push from the Senate floor.
"I would like to see our legislators certainly move the issue forward and do enough lobbying with the Assembly and Senate to get some fair legislation passed that would provide fair funding for schools across New Jersey," she said.
While she said she understands that there may be some special needs associated with the Abbott school districts, "suburban schools are certainly being shortchanged when it comes to school aid."
While Mayor Grbelja said she has not yet seen the petitions, the township would do anything it could to help promote the petitions, including putting information on the township’s Web site, she said.
"I’m sure the Millstone Township Board of Education would really be pushing that particular issue," she said, adding that the township would provide any necessary assistance to them.
Allentown Borough Councilman Jerry Rovner said he also thought the petitions were a good idea, especially for Allentown, where the possibility of bringing ratables to the town is limited.
A lot of people are moving out to the suburbs, and "if they don’t have funding for the schools, they open things up for warehouses," he said. "If they had full funding, they wouldn’t have to have all this sprawling. Our hands are tied in Allentown there’s no place to get ratables."
Washington Superintendent Jack Szabo said, "Obviously we want full funding of the formula, without any question."
The township has particularly been hit hard by lack of aid. Both school and municipal officials recently said they were worried that smart growth-RD projects such as Town Center, are being sabotaged by high property taxes. The tax increases are caused by the lack of state aid to the growing school district mainly centering around $2.2 million in state aid the school district is not receiving from the state Department of Education, coupled with increasing school enrollment.
Dr. Szabo said the district has spent far below the state average in per pupil costs for years, has demonstrated fiscal responsibility and "has continually been able to educate their children and give them a quality education."
"How are we being rewarded for our fiscal responsibility? We’re being rewarded by getting less money," he said.
Still, the burden is unfairly being placed on the local taxpayers, who "have to carry almost the full burden of paying for the schools it’s grossly unfair," he said.
At a minimum, the district should be fully funded, he said. But what would be fair is for a formula to be developed that takes into account a school district’s continuing growth, like that of Washington, and fund it even further.
Dr. Szabo said he would support the petitions and "certainly anything that can be done to promote full funding of the formula as well as addressing the needs of the Washington Township School District."

