NJSBA Raises Concern about Wealth-Based Special-Ed Aid

NJSBA Raises Concern about
Wealth-Based Special-Ed Aid

With the introduction of a new state school funding formula imminent, NJSBA executive director Marie S. Bilik recently outlined the organization’s beliefs and concerns about school finance in New Jersey.

Bilik stressed the need for a formula that gives all children the opportunity to meet the state’s academic standards regardless of where they live, reduces the state’s over-reliance on property taxes to fund public schools, and does not use community wealth as a factor in the distribution of special education aid.

“You have to look no further than your quarterly property tax statement to see the impact of the annual shortfalls in state school aid since New Jersey abandoned its previous funding system in 2002,” said Bilik.

Special Education Aid NJSBA believes a new school finance system should continue the current practice of distributing special education aid based on individual students’ educational eligibility and need for the services—not on community wealth, as has been discussed by administration officials.

“It’s time for the state to match its belief in special education with the proper level of financial support,” said Bilik. “Adding a wealth component to special education aid goes in the wrong direction: It would reduce the financial support school districts need to serve these children.

“Special education is a state- and federally required program. Yet, local school districts already pay 57 percent of the cost of special education,” she pointed out.

NJSBA’s September 2007 study, “Financing Special Education in New Jersey,” examined the impact of economic background on learning disability. Poverty is not a substantial contributing factor in learning disability, the study found. The NJSBA report recommended that any special education funding formula exclude wealth as a factor.

In addition, the study cautioned against blurring the lines between remedial education and special education. State funding programs for students at-risk of academic failure due to poverty must remain separate and apart from special education aid, which is directed at the specific needs of physically and learning disabled students, according to the study.

Equitable “New Jersey’s school-funding formula must enable children to achieve the state’s education standards, regardless of the community where they live,” said Bilik.

“It should recognize that the impact of poverty does not stop at the city limits of Abbott districts. At the same time, there must be a realization that an extremely high concentration of poverty within an individual community places severe strains on its education program.”

Adequate NJSBA believes that the new funding system should be based on an adequate level of spending per pupil, a “foundation level” for general education, tied directly to the state’s academic standards.

“Cost assumptions for the formula must be realistic and not be backed into a predetermined spending amount,” said Bilik. “The alternative would be diminished educational quality or higher property taxes, or both.”

Ease Property-Tax Burden “After almost four decades of litigation, four school funding formulas and a special session of the Legislature, New Jersey still relies far too heavily on property taxes to pay for education,” commented Bilik. “This situation is at the core of the state’s continued failure to provide adequate and equitable education funding for all students in all communities.

“To be successful, a new school funding formula must shift a portion of school revenue away from the local property tax,” she said.

The average state pays approximately half of the cost of its public schools, while New Jersey’s state government covers only 37 percent of public school expenditures, according to the National Education Association.

“Because of the low proportion of state funding, property taxes provide an average of 60 percent of the cost of public education in New Jersey—significantly more than the average among the states,” explained Bilik.

Sustainable “A school funding formula must also be predictable and sustainable,” said Bilik. The state’s previous funding formula was abandoned in 2002, leading to chronic under-funding of state school aid.

A 2007 study, published by the Rutgers-Newark Institute on Education Law and Policy, showed that under-funding of state school aid had reached an annual level of $846 million by 2005-2006.

“Had the state fully funded CEIFA during the past five years, it is quite possible that the furor over New Jersey’s excessively high and ever-escalating local property taxes might never have arisen,” according to the Rutgers news release that described the study.