Pupils'
angry parents demand changes for school aid
laws
Thursday, September 22, 2005 •
BY JOHN MOONEY • Star-Ledger
Staff
For much of the last year, New Jersey's
funding and spending limits on local schools have mostly
drawn the ire of school districts and their
leaders.
Yesterday, more than 100 parents --
almost all mothers -- chimed in loud and clear.
The women and a smattering of men
descended on the Statehouse to air their grievances against
the state's fiscal policies on schools under former Gov.
James E. McGreevey, acting Gov. Richard Codey and the
Legislature.
Traveling throughout the state -- from
Ramsey to Cherry Hill -- they said minimal state funding
increases over the last four years and tight new
restrictions on spending have put deep strains on their
schools. They've led to larger classes, reduced busing and
other cutbacks, they said.
One Rumson mother spoke to the
legislators directly, drawing long and loud
applause.
"We are the parents of the children you
are hurting," said Kimberly Newsome, a mother of four.
"Please put their best interests before your partisan
politics."
The event was organized by the Garden
State Coalition of Schools, a group of more than 120
suburban school districts that has been among the most
outspoken critics of the state's fiscal policies on
schools.
The chief target of their campaign has
been spending limits in a law known by its Senate bill
number, S1701, that has placed new limits on overall and
especially administrative spending and the amount a district
can keep in surplus.
Yesterday, the coalition's leaders mostly
deferred to the mothers to make their case.
A Mount Laurel mother, Kathleen Wolfe,
described how the limits, coupled with rising fuel costs,
have forced her district to consolidate bus routes, with the
next option being to cut nonrequired busing
altogether.
"Do we finally after all these years ...
actually consider putting our little ones on streets with no
sidewalk, no berm, and 55-mile-an-hour traffic?" Wolfe said.
"These are choices that should not have to be made by any
community."
Barely mentioned but implicit in the
rally was the imbalance of state funding that has gone to
the state's neediest, mostly urban districts that fall under
the state Supreme Court's Abbott v. Burke school equity
rulings.
The 31 Abbott districts -- serving about
a quarter of all New Jersey students -- have been the only
districts to get sizable state aid increases. It is a rising
point of contention among some suburban school
advocates.
"Certainly the Abbott schoolchildren
deserve their education," said Margaret Ames, a Scotch
Plains-Fanwood parent. "But I'm not certain all the money
spent there is being administered well."
With election season upon us, politics
entered the event as well. Surrogates for gubernatorial
candidates Jon Corzine and Doug Forrester briefly spoke and
pledged that their respective candidates would work with the
coalition to improve the spending and funding
laws.
John Mooney covers education. He may be reached at
jmooney@star ledger.com or (973) 392-1548.
© 2005 The Star-Ledger. Used by NJ.com with
permission.
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