JERSEY SHORE – Many local school districts were hit hard by cuts in school funding, causing them to lose programs, eliminate positions, and one district even had to sell schools.
The law that cut state aid, S-2, has reached the end of its seven-year span, but the damage is done because state aid is set, more or less, at this new lower amount.
This is an issue that affects local schools more than others, so our reporter reached out to gubernatorial candidates – Republican Jack Ciattarelli and Democrat Mikie Sherrill – in separate phone interviews to discuss their plans for school funding.
This is the first of three articles. The next article will be about both candidates’ plans for how to rein in energy costs. The final article will be an open forum for the candidates to discuss what’s important to them.
Jack Ciattarelli
Ciattarelli called S-2 “nefarious and arbitrary.”
“I’ll look to put a new plan in place on Day One,” he said.
Students with more challenges need more resources. So, districts would get a certain amount of money for each regular education student, and more money for each English language learner. These changes will be incorporated into his first state budget.
“The state would take over the cost of special education,” he said.
“We’ll almost certainly be sued,” he said. However, on Day One he wants to go before the Supreme Court to show why the current funding system is unconstitutional and his proposal is “more than fair.”
“We’re not going to leave any child behind. We’re not going to leave any district behind. We’re just going to lead to a more equitable distribution in our schools,” he said.
Mikie Sherrill
Sherrill said she wants to “modernize and stabilize” the funding structure.
“Not all of the differences in students that are being educated are taken into account,” she said.
“We’ve seen this year over year. Right before the school year begins, districts are trying to fire teachers and cut programs,” she said.
One of the problems of S-2 is that districts never knew what their funding was going to be one year to the next. They expected one figure, and then a much lower figure would come in.
Sherrill said that she wants to set a floor and ceiling to give school officials a much more realistic estimate. The aid will always be never less than X and never greater than Y.
She also advocated for an online safety act which would enforce age-appropriate guidelines and “hold big tech accountable” for what they allow children to see on their websites.
She has an eye on test scores, particularly relating to phonics-based education.
“The state has already committed to funding for teaching phonics-based education,” she said, noting that she was working on federal funding for it as well.
