School Funding:
Where We Need to Be

The School Funding Reform Act: What We Like, What We Don't Like

It’s School Board Recognition Month in New Jersey

Senate Passes DYFS Notification, Sick Leave Bills

NJSBA Expresses Sympathy Over Loss of Piscataway Board Member

NJ’s Enrollment to Outpace Northeast

Deadlines Set for Webinars, Web-Based Training

NJSBA Board of Directors to Meet

Calendar

Click here for a pdf version of this issue of School Board Notes

The School Funding Reform Act of 2008

What We Like

• The goal of a unified funding formula for all school districts—Abbott and non-Abbott.
  
  
• $530 million more in school aid.
  
  
• Infusion of aid to many moderate- and middle-income school districts.
  
  
• Recognition that full-day kindergarten is a component of a thorough and efficient education.

What We Don’t Like

• Requiring 120 districts to direct part of their state aid increases to tax reduction, rather than the classroom.
  
  
• Basing a district’s ability to pay for education on both its property wealth and personal income levels. NJSBA believes that property wealth is the best indicator of community’s ability to pay for its schools.
  
  
• Giving the commissioner of education the sole authority to adopt and implement regulations to carry out the funding plan, without any involvement by the State Board of Education.
  
  
• Unanswered questions: No data has been made available to assess the impact on districts that spend at the adequacy level and tax at their fair share.