Start lobbying now
for more school aid
Give us more in ’04. Given the way things have been going in terms of state funding for suburban school districts in New Jersey over the past few years, that should be the rallying cry for area school administrators and residents.
Although residents will not vote on their local school budgets until April, education professionals and school board members are already developing the budgets that will pay for the 2004-05 academic year.
School administrators and residents — those with and without children in public schools — would be well served to start lobbying their Senate and Assembly representatives right now for a better state aid package this year. Those constituencies must also continue to press state government for substantive changes in the funding formula and laws that determine the amount of aid school districts receive.
New Jersey’s financial straits of the past few years have led to what school officials call level funding.
In other words, the state aid a district received when it had 5,000 students has remained the same even if that district now has 6,000 students. Some administrators make the case that is, in reality, a loss of state aid. Taxpayers in districts that are continuing to see enrollment increases are bearing the brunt of this situation.
In the end, under New Jersey’s present system of funding public schools, property owners pay the difference when the state comes up short. Residents don’t need to be reminded that in this region of the Garden State, school taxes are soaring with no apparent end in sight.
The next few months will see school superintendents deliver warnings to residents about the importance of supporting budgets put forth by local school boards. Those budgets are sure to contain increases in the school tax rate.
Voters will have to assess the risks (cutting programs and school services) and rewards (complete educational programs) that come with casting a "yes" or "no" vote, but they should make their voices heard well before Election Day to the people in state government who may be able to do something to help make the situation better.