Funding Alert

On November 12, 2008, the Jersey City Municipal Council passed a resolution opposing the School Funding Reform Act of 2008 (SFRA). Councilwoman Viola Richardson introduced the resolution.

With a long list of "whereas" clauses citing the harm done by the SFRA to Jersey City school children, the resolution not only puts the city council on record as opposing the new formula, it also urges the New Jersey Legislature to "reinstate the Abbott designation" and "revise the SFRA."

Passed by the slimmest of margins in January, the SFRA eliminates the Abbott remedies established by the NJ Supreme Court for poor, urban school districts. Under the new formula, districts such as Jersey City will lose millions of dollars in State aid. According to the resolution, Jersey City schools stand to lose $25 million in the 2009-10 school year and $43 million in 2010-11.

The resolution notes that neither the NJ Department of Education nor the Legislature has shown that urban school districts like Jersey City no longer need the Abbott remedies and laments the "significant cuts in…programs, services and staff" that will result from the SFRA.

Loyda Goldston, 1st Vice President of Parents and Communities United for Education (PCUE), Jersey City chapter of the Statewide Education Organizing Committee (SEOC), read a prepared statement in support of the resolution. PCUE had assisted Councilwoman Richardson in preparation of the resolution.

Goldston, in her statement, thanked the City Council and said, "We strongly feel that SFRA shortchanges our children and compounds problems in our neighborhoods. It will reverse decades of efforts to provide educational equity for children in poor urban districts, predominantly made up of black and Latino communities."

Council members, for their part, stated in the resolution that they would "take every step possible to support our schoolchildren and our public schools."

Louella McFadden, PCUE President, urged other cities negatively impacted by the SFRA to pass similar resolutions: "We need to demonstrate to our legislators that their constituents and local leaders oppose the new formula, and we expect them to do something about it."

For more information about PCUE and the resolution in opposition to the SFRA, contact pcue.info@seocnj.org or call 201-918-2918.