tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9025948832913694345.post614124599160048443..comments2024-03-22T02:15:56.280-07:00Comments on Jersey Jazzman: Charter School Realities: Red Bank, NJDukehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16535645107179796099noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9025948832913694345.post-82296323039483559132016-01-27T07:00:32.281-08:002016-01-27T07:00:32.281-08:00Hi, great post.
Sen. Jennifer Beck wrote a lette...Hi, great post. <br /><br />Sen. Jennifer Beck wrote a letter to David Hespe recently about the proposed expansion of the RBCS. She said that the expansion must be rejected unless the state is willing to give Red Bank its full SFRA funding.<br /><br />http://www.redbankgreen.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Beck-Hespe-letter-011516.pdf<br /><br />Indeed, Red Bank is savagely underaided. Red Bank's uncapped aid for 2015-16 is $9.5 million, but it only receives $3 million, or 32% of what it is entitled to, the 13th worst percentage underaiding in New Jersey.<br /><br />In per student terms, Red Bank has a deficit $4,655 per student, one of the thirty largest deficits in New Jersey. As Jennifer Beck underscores in her letter, Red Bank has become so underaided because it has had dramatic population growth: 36% (254 students) since 2012 alone and yet its aid has been flat. <br /><br />https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1o9XKu_H3zpChhp1X8lrc6BBMDyizEtwh_IwaiNifas4/edit#gid=1096995092<br /><br />(Monmouth County has some of the worst aid disparities in New Jersey, although that would be the subject of another post.)<br /><br />You're right about the potential of a regional K-12 district for Little Silver, Shrewsbury, and Red Bank Boro. I don't know if an idea like this has ever gained traction, but a K-12 regional district wouldn't necessarily mean tax increases for Little Silver and Shrewsbury either since new (post-1993) regional districts are allowed to apportion tax responsibility on a per pupil basis. <br /><br />Even if there were some use of Equalized Valuation to apportion taxes, Shrewsbury and Little Silver do not have that much to fear.<br /><br />Red Bank Boro's tax base is not as high as Shrewsbury and Little Silver (both of whom have more than $20k per student in Local Fair Share), but Red Bank Boro has over $13,000 per student, which is above the state's average. Even under the unfair status quo, Red Bank Boro gets more state aid than Little Silver and Shrewsbury to the point where its K-8 Equalized Tax Rate is actually lower than theirs are. <br /><br />"Furthermore, the three towns are within a small geographic area, about 4 miles across. A centrally located school, particularly for the younger children, wouldn't be any further than a couple of miles away for families. It would be quite feasible to implement a "Princeton Plan" for the area; for example, all K-2 students would attend one school, 3-5 another, and 6-8 another."<br /><br />Or a Montclair plan, where the elementary and middle schools are (modestly) differentiated by curricular emphasis, pedagogy, and even schedule and parents and students choose which school to attend based on interest.<br /><br />StateAidGuyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00346914457455404884noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9025948832913694345.post-19502741940616783252016-01-26T18:01:38.985-08:002016-01-26T18:01:38.985-08:00Love this so much, thank you for laying it out the...Love this so much, thank you for laying it out there!LSgirlhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15573084626135246742noreply@blogger.com