Accountability Regulations Pose Far-Reaching Changes

Countywide Negotiations Proposed

Corzine Signs Family Leave Bill into Law

Senate Panel Advances Recess Bill

Hearing Set on Tax Credit Voucher Program

Governor Proclaims May 11-17 ‘Special Education Week in New Jersey’

31 Achieve Certificated Board Member Status

New Board Member Weekend Orientation Conference

NJSBA Welcomes New Staff

Association Seeks Board Member Involvement

NJSBA’s Legislative Committee: The Big Picture

Thinking Globally

NJSBA Board of Directors to Meet

Conversation with Corzine is Online

Reminder: WebChat on Monday

Calendar

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

The Senate Economic Growth Committee has scheduled a hearing for Thursday morning, May 8, on S-1607, a five-year pilot tax credit voucher bill. 

The bill, called the “Urban Enterprise Zone Jobs Scholarship Act,” would establish a five-year pilot program in Department of the Treasury to provide corporate tax credits to pay for scholarships to send students in seven communities to out-of-district public schools or to private and religious schools. 

NJSBA and other organizations oppose the measure, as it would strip the state treasury of $360 million, which is funding that would otherwise be available to assist public schools. Moreover, it would establish a circuitous method to establish a voucher-like program where public money is used to support tuition payments to private schools.  

The bill would establish a program where corporations would receive a tax credit for contributions made to a state-run “Corporate Tax Credit Scholarship Fund.” The donation would cost the corporation nothing, as it would reduce dollar-for-dollar the corporation’s yearly state tax payments, in the form of a tax credit. 

The Corporate Tax Credit Scholarship Fund would fund private school education for students in Camden, Elizabeth, Lakewood, Newark, Orange, Paterson and Trenton. 

Individual awards to K-8 students would be limited to 40 percent of the average per-pupil cost of an elementary student in the seven pilot districts. The awards to for high school students would be limited to 59 percent of the per-pupil cost in the seven school districts. According to the bill, private schools that enroll students under the program must “accept the scholarship as payment in full for a child's tuition and any other costs of attendance payable to the school.” 

While some exclusive private schools have tuition much higher than the average per-pupil cost in local public schools, some parochial schools have tuition that is much lower.