Immediately after Governor Christie proposed his state budget for FY2011, members of Our Children/Our Schools launched a campaign to influence State Legislators on education aid. The campaign's slogan is "Fund the Formula in FY2011." OC/OS is demanding that the Legislature provide state aid to school districts as set forth by the School Funding Reform Act (SFRA).

NJ school districts already find themselves in a difficult position as a result of Governor Christie's aid cuts in the current budget year. With reserves wiped out and fixed costs rising, schools are being forced to make cuts in programs and staff.

While OC/OS members did not fully support the SFRA when it was proposed, they note that it is the law of the land, passed by the State Legislature in January 2008, and upheld by the NJ Supreme Court in a decision issued in May 2009.

As part of the "Fund the Formula" campaign, OC/OS has been circulating a petition demanding full funding of the SFRA and other legislative actions to protect school aid. Several thousand signatures have already been collected electronically and on hard copies of the petition. Signatures will continue to be collected through the middle of June, when the petition will be the subject of an OC/OS press release and will be presented to the Legislature.

To sign the petition, please click here.

To download a printable copy of the petition to post and circulate, please click here.

The "Fund the Formula in FY2011" campaign was launched with a press release outlining the OC/OS position on state aid to schools. Below are excerpts from that release:

"We've been down this road before, when the previous school aid formula wasn't funded," said Richard Snyder, Executive Director of Dollars & Sense Education Advocacy, a member of OC/OS. "The SFRA was passed in part to end the practice of not funding the formula and to provide much-needed aid increases to some school districts, while not overly penalizing others. Schools need the aid they've been counting on, especially now."

"Who suffers in these cases? The children!" Tom Puryear asked and answered his own question. Mr. Puryear is Education Chair of the Oranges and Maplewood Branch of the NJ State Conference of the NAACP, a founding member of OC/OS. "When our schools can't afford to maintain adequate programs and staffing levels, our students don't get the education they need to succeed in college and in life," he added.

Noting that current budget year cuts already jeopardize educational programs, Elizabeth Smith, Treasurer of the Statewide Education Organizing Committee, another OC/OS member, added: "We need to think about our economy as well as our students. The Governor has decided to take funding away from the New Jersey After 3 program, which provides afterschool programs for 12,000 children. That cut will take effect at the end of March. Besides leaving these children on the streets, without the additional educational support they had been getting, will their parents be forced to stop working to care for them?"

Prepared: June 2, 2010