According to two articles in today's Press of Atlantic City, Gov. Chris Christie plans to freeze $1.6 billion in unspent money, including $475 million in school aid.
Southern New Jersey School Districts will lose $59.9 million during the remainder of the school year, as part of his budget cutting initiative.
The governor's cuts withhold an amount equal to its excess surplus, which is surplus that is more than 2 percent of the total budget. School districts that have managed to collect this much money, usually use it to provide tax relief during the next budget year or expand programs. Christie said the cuts wouldn't affect classroom instruction or property taxes. More than 100 districts will lose aid for the rest of the school year. Christie highlighted union compensation, including for teachers, as an out-of-control expense.
What does all this mean for Mullica Township School? Mullica Township School will lose $261,117. And as for not affecting property taxes, it will likely lead to either a significant increase in school taxes in upcoming years or a reduction of services and/or staff to help close the gap.
Friday, February 12, 2010
Gov. Christie Slashes Aid to Schools-How does it affect Mullica?
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21 comments:
Instead of fixing the innate problems with the high costs of our public schools once and for all, Christie is just going to kick the can down the road to the local level to worry about. Nothing will change. The state won't have to raise income taxes but the municipalities will have to make it up in higher property taxes. So how do the taxpayers get relief from higher taxes? They don't. Christie can say how he cut the state budget and the local officials can blame state for the cuts and need to raise local taxes. Everyone is off the hook.
According to the article, the state's cut in payments amounts to just the schools' surpluses above 2% of their entire budget. The state just wants the schools to use some of their excess reserve for operating expenses. Next year the state will have to raise its contribution to cover the used up surplus. So why should it result in higher property taxes?
Most school districts apply some of their unexpended surplus when constructing the next year's budget. If they don't have the surplus to use then the local tax levy has to be increased. This will result in higher property taxes as usual. You can rest assured that the state will not increase its contribution to cover the used up surplus as the writer suggests.
"Christie highlighted union compensation, including for teachers, as an out-of-control expense."
So why not fix the problem rather than just use up the reserve. That solves nothing, it just sweeps the problem under the rug for yet another year. Next year they'll be no reserve to use up and the same problem will still exist. What do we do then? You need a plan, gov.
Everyone knew once Christie was elected governor that education was low on his list of priorities.
He's pro-charter schools, wants to siphon money from public schools to private schools, who are not held to the same standards of accountability as a public school is. This is just the beginning of the downfall of public schools.
This should be a wake up call to the NJEA that soon it may kill the golden goose if it doesn't heed.
The problems with charter and private schools is typically an inferior education at the cheaper schools or tuition is much more expensive than the voucher allows for at better schools. The schools can also pick and choose so the most undesirable students will go to the public schools. It becomes a two-class educational system, with the poorer families either sending their kids to inferior charter schools or public schools and the more wealthier families sending their kids to the better schools.
A lot of the current blame lies at the feet of the NJEA, which has been milking the cash cow relentlessly for many years. That cow is now just about dried up.
RE 10:37 am
I think there are a lot of parents that would love to send their children to private schools but they just can't afford the tuition.
You gave the impression that private schools have less of an academic standard than public schools. I think the opposite is true.
The public educational system in this country is falling behind other nations. This is a total disgrace. Throwing trillions of dollars into a broken system is ridiculous.
When you have a third or more of the children that can't even pass language arts, you have to start looking at the cause.
Abolish tenure and only give raises for results. Require more contributions to benefits from the teachers and bring their health plans on to the same level as the business sector.
This should be carried though to all State employees. Get rid of the dead weight in the County and State. We don't need five highly paid union guys standing around watching while one guy fills a pot hole in the road.
Looks like the governor intends to squeeze the taxpayers' shoes so they will do the dirty work for him by demanding larger class sizes and layoffs.
There are many great private schools but they are very expensive to the average family. If the state voucher was equal to what it currently costs to educate students in the public schools, parents might be able to make up the difference and assure that their children are getting an excellent education. This would result in more private schools and more competition to handle the increased demand. Teachers would be hired and retained on their educational credentials and abilities, not on their connections and union protection. That's how it works in private industry. Its called capitalism.
Re 5:57 pm
I agree with your post and vouchers would be the best way to go.
A few parochial schools have already closed down because the parents could no longer afford the tuition.
All these and future children being put in the public system will result in more public schools being built or additions put on. This will be a major burden for the taxpayers.
I like the idea of new affordable private schools that would give parents a choice in their children's education. A private institution would value it's reputation and would make sure that each student would get the help he/she needs to pass the courses.
All this is going to do is decimate our public school system. Taxpayer money that would ordinarily be aid to the public schools will be diverted to private schools, forcing public schools to cut services and staff.
Look at all the charter school that have failed state mandates and have closed up in our county alone.
We need to find new efficiencies in our public schools, but we should not throw away the tens of millions of dollars of investment and the quality of education that is available to all regardless of their financial or social status.
No, I am not a teacher, but I believe in a good education for EVERYONE, not just those whose parents happen to be paying attention.
Its going to be interesting to see how the different school boards handle this blow. Some local boards have already settled with their teachers union, giving them big raises over the next three years. They're going to have to start cutting somewhere or raise property taxes significantly.
How much higher can the property taxes go? NJ is among the highest in the nation.
Those other local boards that gave large raises to the teachers this year should be throw out of their positions.
All the districts should just put a freeze on all wages this year and cut all unnecessary spending.
Re 2:57 pm
I think we should leave the tenure issue alone. After reading today about the biology college professor in Ala.,I see that tenure is a very touchy subject among teachers.
Teachers have one of the largest and strongest unions in the state. It is called the NJEA. This union plus tenure makes it impossible to fire a tenured teacher who is not performing. Tenure (meaning life time jobs) needs to be eliminated at all levels from elementary school through college. The unions will insure that teachers' rights are protected.
Re 9:40 am
So what you're saying is that a tenured teacher can not be fired even if 95% of her class fails standard state tests.
The whole theory of tenure is ridiculous.
Not only should it be eliminated from the educational system but also every government position.
All dead weight should be eliminated and replaced by a system that rewards productive results and doesn't protect mediocre employees.
This is just the beginning of higher property taxes that will be "trickled down" from the State. Any taxpayer who for one second believed that any governor would actually find a way to address property taxes was simply fooling themselves. Christie won the election with rhetoric about how the State was not managed well, then tried to sell us on how things were worse than what he thought.
If Christie were serious about property taxes, he'd find a way to reduce the size of State government while providing school and municipal aid to at least the same level that we had in 2009. Towns and boards of ed would then have to figure out how to squeeze rising costs from the same number of dollars.
Rising property taxes hurt all property owners---including those who have lost their jobs or are earning less as a result of the poor economy. It is time to address the income tax system in NJ, a more fair way of assessing those who have the greatest ability to pay without hurting those who are earning less or only have unemployment to count on.
I just read an interesting article on www.businessinsider.com. It's the 12th article down on the page. 2/15/10
"Unionized Rhode Island Teachers Refuse To Work 25 Minutes More Per Day, So Town Fires All Off Them."
The article questions if this is a sign of future trends because throughout the nation the public workers make way more than their private sector counterparts who are footing the bills.
A lot of our corporations moved out of this country because they couldn't afford to pay the high union wages anymore. The former employees lost their high paying jobs and are still unemployed or working for much lower wages now.
We can't move our schools out of the country but Rhode Island is showing that the union and all it's members can be thrown out of the schools and replaced.
6:38 PM post
The difference with RI and NJ is that here all contracts are local. The NJEA plays one local board against the other. "Oh, EHT gave the teachers there this and that, why can't you? Don't you want good teachers in your schools?" Then the municipal unions chime in "You gave the teachers so much. We only want the same." Then the police. And so it goes, round and round. If Christie had any ba..s, he would taken on the the NJEA and tell it that from now on they negotiate a statewide the contract with him. But he doesn't. He's all big mouth. Its easier just to pass the tax increases onto us. How about this idea: whatever increase the local board passes onto the taxpayers, the state's contribution will be reduced an equal amount. That will force the boards not give the big raises that they traditionally award the union, for what, I don't know.
As a young adult, I worked for a unionized company for a time. The company paid poorly-educated men a livable wage, bringing them into the middle class. People from the coal mining country in PA even worked there, living in boarding houses during the week and going home to their families on weekends. Eventually, it was almost like the union was running the company. It got greedy and had negotiated a big set of work rules that hamstrung the company. A big bureaucracy. The company couldn't make a profit any longer. It built new factory in Puerto Rico and tore down its NJ facility. That's what eventually is going to happen with our public school system.
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