Legislative update
Senate decides ballots for regional districts, oral recitation bills

TRENTON, June 26, 2000—Six months into its two-year legislative session, the state Legislature has advanced several educational issues—most notably are bills dealing with ballots in regional school districts and oral recitation of the Declaration of Independence. 

The Senate today approved legislation that would allow regional school boards to give voters information on the ballot showing the amount of taxes each constituent municipality must raise to support the regional school budget.  NJSBA strongly supports the bill, S-456, sponsored by Senators John A. Girgenti and Joseph A. Palaia.  The bill, a legislative goal of NJSBA, was introduced at the request of the Manchester Regional High School Board of Education (Passaic County), after their resolution was approved at the November 1998 meeting of NJSBA’s governing body, the Delegate Assembly.  

Currently, the ballot for regional school districts shows a budget that reflects the entire regional district’s budget—without explanation of the proportion that each constituent district will pay.  Voters may view the budget negatively—and reject the regional district’s budget—if they only see the total amount of the budget instead of their community’s share.  The bill now goes to the Assembly Education Committee for its review. 

The Senate also approved today the oral recitation bill, S-869, which would require students recite a 55-word passage from the Declaration of Independence and that school districts implement age appropriate curriculum to supplement the daily recitation.  An NJSBA position statement expressed concerns with the bill, saying it is more than a mere recitation of 55 words from the Declaration of Independence. 

“As presently drafted, Section 3 of Senate bill 869 requires school districts to also establish age appropriate curriculum,” according to the NJSBA statement.  “The bill removes the ability to decide the curriculum best suited to a particular school district from the local board of education.  In addition, this mandate is not fully funded as required by the State Constitution, since only $10,000 is appropriated for implementation.”  The bill now moves to the Assembly Education Committee. 

On June 15, three public access bills were discussed and held by the Senate Judiciary Committee.  S-161 (Baer) would revise the law regarding access to public records; S-573 (Robertson) would make it easier for the public to inspect, copy and purchase copies of public records; and S-866 (Martin) would provide public access to public records.  NJSBA is seeking amendments to protect school districts in the case of requests intended to harass, and allow districts to deny requests that may compromise the health and safety of students or district staff. 

The issue of smoking on school grounds (S-412) was addressed and released on June 19 by the Senate Education Committee.  The bill, which would prohibit smoking on school grounds, moves to the Senate floor.  NJSBA successfully obtained an amendment that removes school boards as the body that collects and transfers fines.  NJSBA now supports this legislation. 

On June 15 the Assembly passed A-592, which would prohibit the dissemination of a student’s personal information on the Internet without parental consent.  NJSBA supports this bill, which now moves to the Senate Education Committee.