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SOUTH BRUNSWICK – Local parents demand gov reinstate school funding

By Mary Brienza, Staff Writer
   A group of nine Monmouth Junction Elementary School parents held a press conference and braved the afternoon sun in front of the school on Ridge Road on May 25 to demand Gov. Christopher Christie restore school funding to the district.
   Resident Lisa Rodgers, who has two children in the district, said all the state districts should be fully funded, not just the “Abbott” districts.
   ”Due to the lack of funding, South Brunswick is one of 205 school districts unable to meet core curriculum requirements mandated by the School Funding Reform Act passed in 2007,” Ms. Rodgers said. “The state is responsible for specifically funding $5.4 million to South Brunswick schools.”
   Ms. Rodgers and the other parents were reacting to last week’s state Supreme Court decision forcing the state to pay some $500 million to 31 low-income districts.
   The May 24 decision by the court found the state is negligent in holding back the money due those districts through the 2008 funding formula, according to court documents.
   ”The court said that they were constrained by the Abbott cases and could not approve supplemental funding (for other districts,)” Ms. Rodgers said. “We believe the court case underscores the need to fund all public schools.”
   The “Abbott” districts, as they are known, are part of a court case started in the mid 1980s.
   The case was brought in 1985 by the parents and guardians of students in impoverished districts. According to court documents, the initial complaint said the low-income district students had their state constitutional rights violated because they had fewer resources than their more affluent suburban counterparts.
   In 1990, the court sided with the plaintiffs and forced the state to fund the 31 lower income districts at a substantially higher rate than they had in the past, according to court documents.
   In an attempt to make education funding even fairer, Gov. Jon Corzine’s administration developed a mathematical formula to fund the “Abbott” districts, which was upheld by the court at the time as long as the formula was fully funded by the state, according to court documents.
   The case came before the court again this year as Gov. Christie tried to cut back even further in the amount of state money funding the districts, according to court documents.
   In its May 24 decision, the state Supreme Court ordered the state and Gov. Christie to restore the $500 million to those districts, according to court documents.
   Gov. Christie said, in a statement last Tuesday, that he was “disappointed” with the decision but would comply with the order.
   ” I believe the court’s decision is based on a failed legal and educational theory that incorrectly reasons the key to establishing a thorough and efficient system of education is to throw more money at failing schools,” Gov. Christie said in his statement. “I do believe funding education is critically important to New Jersey’s future. Even before today’s court decision, we increased education aid by $250 million to every school district in this year’s proposed budget.”
   In addition to the “Abbott” districts, another 205 districts, including South Brunswick, have seen their aid reduced by millions due to the current budget crisis, according to district officials.
   The decrease in state funding has led to property tax increases and implementation of activity and course fees charged to students in the district, according to district officials.
   Ms. Rodgers said students should not have to pay fees for extracurricular activities and AP classes.
   Due to budget constraints, students pay $25 to $75 to participate in various sports and activities, and students now are being asked to pay a $75 fee in order to take an Advanced Placement class, according to district officials.
   Ms. Rodgers said AP classes run between $300 and $500 per class, and most students take three or four classes.
   ”A family could potentially have to pay $2,000 to $4,000 for their children to have an AP class,” she said.
   According to district officials, there is a $300 maximum per family for the fees.
   Monmouth Junction resident Jenna Hartman, 12, who attends Crossroads North, said she has seen the effects of the budget cuts.
   She said she would have been moved to a higher level band, but because of cuts, that band was eliminated, and she had to stay in the same band.
   ”(I was) a little disappointed,” Jenna said.
   She said some of the students could not make the band because it was made more challenging to get in.
   Jenna said as a result of the cuts, teachers were laid off, causing larger class sizes.
   ”(There are) more kids in gym,” she said.
   She said there is a wait to participate in activities, and not everyone gets to do the activity in gym class.
   Jenna said there are 30 children in her science class, and there are five people per table.
   ”Sometimes more ideas are better, but then also not everyone can participate at once,” she said.
   Jenna said some children are not as included in the activities.Monmouth Junction resident Stacye Chen, 44, said the loss of staff affects everything. There needs to be an adequate amount of adults to prevent bullying and mischief, she said.
   Robert Duffey, a spokesman for the Better Choices for New Jersey policy organization, which organized the press conference, said his group is calling for restoring a tax on state residents earning more than $400,000 per year to get school funding back to where it needs to be.
   Under the plan offered by Mr. Duffey’s group, income taxes on those residents would rise about 2 percent to around 10 percent.
   It is one of several alternatives in raising revenue and curbing spending proposed by the organization, composed of 70 other interest groups throughout the state, including the New Jersey Education Association, the Progressive Democratic Caucus and the Sierra Club, among others.
   Locally, Ms. Rodgers became involved due to the controversy surrounding a proposed charter school in the community which district officials say, is taking more than $1 million from the most recent $134 million budget, approved by voters April 27.
   Ms. Rodgers said funding charter schools take funding away from public schools.
   ”While we believe charter schools have a place, they can be, among other reasons, a diversion on public school resources, and public schools in New Jersey have never seen a greater need,” Ms. Rodgers said. “Much of the reason for that greater need is due to the lack of execution of current law.”