School Board Opposes State Scholarship Bills

The Manchester Board of Education approved a resolution affirming its opposition to state bills that they said would unfairly divert much needed funds from public to private schools.The Opportunity Scholarship Act, presented as Senate Bill 1872 and Assembly Bill 2810, would allow children living in a targeted district which operates more than one underperforming school to apply for a voucher to attend another public or private school.“In essence, what these bills would do is allow corporations to donate funds in lieu of tax payments to the state to a separate scholarship fund that … would provide scholarships in certain identified districts to children who could use them to attend private and religious schools,” said board member Donald Webster Jr. during the board's Feb. 16 meeting. “It's in effect a diversion of tax revenue that would otherwise go into the general fund.”Webster said that the money could be better supporting struggling school districts.“It could be used for state services or providing state aid to municipalities or school districts,” he said, adding that the proposed five-year pilot program “could ultimately divert up to a billion dollars in tax revenue to these private schools.”As written in the resolution, the board stated that they oppose “any government policy that would divert funds from the state's revenue stream to private schools when sufficient revenue is not available for New Jersey's public school finance law.”Manchester Schools Superintendent David Trethaway said that the act calls for one quarter of its funds to be set aside for students already enrolled in private schools, a provision that could impact public education.“That's money that will be taken out of the public schools and given to students who are already attending private schools. With all the cuts that we're having in public education, anything less is going to be even more drastic,” he said.The resolution stated that New Jersey is experiencing a "fiscal emergency" that means inadequate funding for public education through the School Funding Reform Act. The board further stated that it “believes in school choice within the public education sector upon the mutual agreement of the school boards involved” and “that public funds should not be used to support private schools.”According to the resolution, "the Opportunity Scholarship Act would fail to address the needs of those students in targeted districts who do not participate in the program." The board “believes that the state should target improvement efforts within in the public school system, ensuring that they reach all students.”The resolution will be delivered to the Gov. Chris Christie, state Senate President Stephen Sweeney, Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver, Ninth Legislative District representatives, Acting Commissioner of Education Christopher Cerf, the New Jersey School Boards Association and the Ocean County School Boards Association.