School Funding Transparency

By Vin Gopal

We have been working in the Legislature to find ways of helping local school districts cut their costs and making the school funding process more transparent and efficient. We want to share a few of our priorities when the State Senate and Assembly go back into session in May.

The most obvious way of cutting costs is by reducing duplication and consolidating some of  New Jersey’s more than 600 school districts. More than 200 of them have less than 500 students. Many of them have buildings less than 30 percent full.

That’s why we have sponsored and introduced legislation in the Senate and Assembly that requires the executive county superintendent of schools to establish a consolidation plan to combine smaller school districts into regional school districts. The plan is to recommend the consolidation of any school district which has a resident enrollment of less than 500 students; and to establish or enlarge all-purpose regional school districts in the county. We can save tens of millions for taxpayers while also improving the quality of education for our students by mandating regionalizing costs such as healthcare, waste management, snow removal, IT, administrative costs, special education, mental health and so much more.

We have also introduced bills in both the Senate and Assembly to require the state Commissioner of Education to make preliminary state school aid notices and school district budgets available on a new website, the New Jersey Education Funding Portal. The bill also modifies the school funding law to require the Education Commissioner to provide each district with a preliminary state aid notice by the end of the first week of each December. This information is critical to school districts trying to set their budgets. In addition, within two days after the Governor’s state budget message, the commissioner has to notify each district of the projected statewide property value rate and the projected income rate to be used in the calculation of a district’s local share in the coming year.

In the Senate Education Committee, which I chair, we expect to begin discussing how New Jersey uses payments in lieu of taxes, or PILOT, programs. Currently, New Jersey law does not require municipal governments to share lump sum PILOT payments from developers with their school districts. That seems wrong, especially since the developments usually add children to the school system.

We also have introduced legislation to require school districts, charter schools, nonpublic schools, and contracted service providers to review the employment history of prospective employees for allegations of child abuse or sexual misconduct. Among the things the Education Committees in the Assembly and Senate will be discussing is removing the 20-year limit on prospective school hires’ work histories.

Knowledge is power. When we make school funding and local district costs more transparent, we empower the ultimate deciders, residents, property taxpayers, and parents to reach informed decisions about their child’s education.