Funding Alert

The Star Ledger is reporting that legislators leading the effort to rewrite New Jersey’s school funding law are working on the new formula behind closed doors with the Department of Education, and will release legislation on the formula to the public sometime "next month." The newspaper is also reporting that Senator John Adler, co-chair of the Special Legislative Committee on School Funding, is "directly involved" in developing the school funding legislation.

It is unclear whether other legislators on the Special Committee are also involved in drafting the new formula, or what the timetable will be for making the new school funding legislation public.

In the meantime, the Department of Education remains steadfast in its opposition to releasing a 2003 study of education costs for New Jersey’s public school students, a study performed by the NJDOE Office of School Funding and Denver-based school finance expert John Augenblick. The NJDOE paid Mr. Augenblick $110,000 for his work on the study, and even brought Mr. Augenblick back to New Jersey this summer to assist in determining the cost of providing preschool education.

Education Law Center, on behalf of New Jersey’s disadvantaged students, has filed suit under the state Open Public Records Act (OPRA) to have the cost study released. Acting Attorney General Anne Milgram is vigorously opposing public disclosure, arguing that the study is privileged information which the Department can keep secret. A hearing on ELC’s lawsuit is scheduled for September 29th in Mercer County Superior Court.

Additional documents recently sent to ELC also reveal that NJDOE Office of School Funding made a presentation in October 2005 – almost one year ago -- to unnamed "members of the Legislature" on "the status of funding formula revisions," including "policy options...for consideration by the Legislature." All of the information regarding the funding formula revisions and policy options were blacked-out, with the Attorney General again asserting the information is privileged and can be kept from the public.

"Our experience in 1996 when Governor Whitman’s flawed school funding law was enacted make clear that real problems arise when some legislators work in secret, and then release the entire formula with little opportunity for review, analysis and input by education stakeholders, school finance experts, parents and taxpayers," said David Sciarra, ELC Executive Director. "We are concerned that legislators are now making the same mistake. Our school children deserve an open, transparent and deliberative process – without any arbitrary deadline – starting with subjecting the data on education costs to rigorous expert and public scrutiny," he added.