November Elections, Administrative Cuts Stall

November Elections, Administrative Cuts Stall

The bill to move school board member elections to November appears to have stalled in the Senate. The Senate Education Committee was not slated to hear S-1861 this week, as senators have various issues with the bill.

Some senators are concerned that November elections could enmesh school boards in party politics—an issue raised by NJSBA. Most senators, however, oppose a provision of the bill to eliminate the public vote on school budgets that are under the state’s spending caps—an aspect that NJSBA supports.

At this time, no other Senate Education Committee meetings have been scheduled prior to the Legislature’s summer recess. If that holds, the earliest we could see movement on the bill would be in the fall. However, under the current legislative schedule, there is the possibility—unlikely at this point—that Senate President Richard Codey could require the committee to convene on June 16 or June 19.

Also stalled in the Senate is A-10, a bill to cut local school administrative costs by 10 percent over three years. The bill could affect more than 200 school districts. NJSBA opposes the measure, which would be made without regard to cost efficiencies or academic records. A U.S. Department of Education report ranks New Jersey 38th among the states in the percentage of its school costs that goes toward administrative spending