Upon submission, we will send the following e-mail on your behalf:
Hello,
I, {name}, am writing you today to fulfill the campaign promise of fairly and fully funding all schools in New Jersey.
You ran on a platform of ensuring that New Jersey would be “fairer” and “stronger” and your initial actions on the issue of school funding were promising. In addition to your promise to fully fund NJ’s schools, in January, you nominated Dr. Lamont Repollet to be the Acting Commissioner of New Jersey’s Department of Education. You promised that Dr. Repollet would bring “strong leadership” and “a culture of high expectations, eliminating the challenges, [and] carving new paths to progress.” After years of having education commissioners with no education experience, Dr. Repollet’s credibility is bolstered by many years of experience as a teacher and an administrator at various public schools. His combined education and experience suggested that you would make good on your campaign promise.
Since this time, we have been disappointed by your lack of action. The initial school aid numbers for FY19 are disappointing to districts that believed you would take action in support of our plight. Our districts cannot wait any longer; There is nowhere left in our budgets to cut. Taxpayers are paying over their local fair share for school districts that remains below adequacy or offer bare bones services. While we understand that full implementation of a solution will not come “overnight” as you mentioned on your “Ask the Governor” program, your budget does little more than exacerbate the inequities that we have lived for the better part of a decade. Modest increases for underfunded districts, while districts that have already been superfunded for a decade got additional increases is not what ensures that NJ is “fairer” and “stronger.”
At your Willingboro town hall, you proclaimed to the parents and students of underfunded districts that you are our “ally” and that “help is on the way” but there have been no specifics as to how you are going to provide assistance. We are looking to you to provide the legislature with clear leadership on this issue, and to do so will require both yourself and Dr. Repollet to immediately familiarize yourselves with New Jersey’s school funding crisis
While the acting Commissioner of Education, Dr. Repollet, may need six to eight months to study this issue, in Chesterfield, Kingsway, Cherry Hill, Delran, Clifton, Newton or any of the 65% of school districts that are underfunded we can attest that the solution is clear: Acknowledge the $1.9 billion in uncapped aid deficits facing our school communities, and work with the legislature now to begin fair and equitable distribution of state aid by phasing our adjustment aid, prioritizing districts with the greatest uncapped aid deficiencies, and removing growth caps that limit the amount of funding a district receives even as enrollment increases.
It will take political courage to lead on this issue, but in doing so effectively, you will have taken a meaningful step towards ensuring that New Jersey is a “fairer” and “stronger” place to live. We choose to believe that your campaign promise was more than just lip service. Please don’t let us down.
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Sincerely,
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State: NJ