Trenton, NJ – Gov. Chris Christie Tuesday will propose slashing aid to public schools by $820 million as part of a state budget that will also make major cuts in aid to towns and colleges, officials familiar with the plan said today.
The word of a pending big loss in aid spurred school district officials today to say they’re making plans for layoffs and program cuts.
“Every district is preparing for the worst,” said John Rodecker, superintendent of the nearly 10,000-student Perth Amboy School District. “We are anticipating layoffs. To what extent depends on what the bottom line is this week.”
The Republican governor will propose making across-the-board cuts of up to 5 percent of each district’s budget — a move administration officials believe will spur a new court battle over how New Jersey funds its public schools, said four state officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity ahead of Christie’s speech.
Christie’s $29.3 billion budget will also call for suspending property tax rebate checks until they are converted into credits by next spring. The proposal includes a constitutional amendment limiting annual property tax increases to 2.5 percent, while skipping a $3 billion payment to the struggling state pension system.
Christie ruled out raising taxes to solve the $11 billion deficit, despite some Democrats’ calls to restore a one-time income tax surcharge on the state’s wealthiest residents.
The overall reduction of about $820 million in school aid could be at odds with New Jersey’s school funding formula, which distributes state aid based on enrollment, with extra money going to districts with high concentrations of students who are poor, have special needs or limited English skills. That formula, which survived a Supreme Court challenge last spring, replaced the longstanding “Abbott” system that sent the bulk of the aid to 31 poor urban districts.
The cuts to schools come on top of $475 million that Christie sliced from school aid in the current fiscal year. Those cuts were based on districts’ excess surplus.
(READ MORE: http://www.nj.com/)
Join the official YWN WhatsApp status
4 Responses
Go Gov! There’s tons of waste in the school system. Each district has a bunch of people whose job descriptions make no sense making six figures. And bravo for not “punishing” the wealthy by increasing taxes.
All this guy is doing is normal. You can’t spend money you don’t have.
Its about time somebody had the guts to do what was needed.
Get the illegal Mexican kids out of our schools. The thousands it costs to educate just one of them and the extra thousands it costs for that same student because they have to be in a bilingual situation is a total waste. American students will suffer from the cuts. Illegal Mexicans do not want to learn English nor do they speak proper Spanish. Illegal ANYONE should not be in our system on our tax dollar!!!!