Education advocates urge support for underfunded districts

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Apr 22, 2022 View in browser   By Jonathan Custodio Education advocates praised Gov. Phil Murphy's plan to increase state school aid during a Senate Budget Hearing Thursday, with caveats on how shifts to the New Jersey's school funding formula will affect various districts, reports New Jersey Monitor's Nikita Biryukov. New Jersey School Boards Association Director of Government Relations Jonathan Pushman told the panel that the $650 million in formula aid as part of the governor's plan would get resources to their "chronically underfunded members," while warning that certain districts who lost state funding after the state's school funding formula was rebalanced in 2018 would need stabilization aid boosted. Under Murphy's $48.9 billion budget proposal and with the additional $650 million in funding, state school aid would rise to $19 billion. The 2018 law limited how much aid underfunded districts could receive through an immediate elimination of enrollment caps, which resulted in overfunded districts receiving more aid. Pushman called on senators to maintain the $20 million in stabilization aid in the governor's proposal that is meant to lessen the impact on school districts receiving less formula aid. WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY IN THIS CLIMATE — State Sen. Bob Smith (D-Middlesex), chair of the Senate Environment and Energy Committee said climate change-focused bill ready by the end of the year, reports NJ Spotlight News' Tom Johnson . "Clearly, we are making strides, but we are not doing enough,'' Smith said. Climate activists echoed Smith's urgency during Thursday's committee hearing on how to shift the state away from fossil fuels. The Middlesex senator said he wants to electrify public transit but did not specify further on what kind of policies the bill would encompass. COVID NUMBERS — New Jersey continued it's high Covid-19 case count, reporting 2,321 confirmed positive tests and eight deaths due to the virus. The state's seven-day average was up 2 percent from a week ago and 139 percent from a month ago.   Around New Jersey "Gender identity a lightning rod in N.J. sex ed curriculum debate," by New Jersey Monitor's Dana Difilippo: "Avery Heimann knew before they even started school that they were queer. Their classmates caught on to their difference immediately and were not kind." "'From kindergarten to fifth grade, when my parents pulled me out of public school and put me into a private school, it was nonstop bullying,' Heimann remembered." "As unwelcome as that experience was, it was also formative. Determined to support others on their same path, Heimann became a sex educator and mental health therapist for LGBTQ adults and children in North and Central Jersey." "Back child-care bills now, lawmakers urged," by NJ Spotlight News' John Reitmeyer: "Lawmakers are being urged to get behind a package of bills that seeks to address what many advocates are calling a child-care crisis in New Jersey." "The bills proposed by Senate Majority Leader Teresa Ruiz (D-Essex) earlier this month would, among other things, seek to make child care more accessible and affordable, including in lower-income communities often referred to as 'child care deserts.'" "And while the bill package comes with an overall price tag of $350 million, advocates who spoke during a Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee hearing on the state budget on Thursday suggested that would be money well-spent in a state that has still not recovered all the jobs that were lost two years ago at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic." "Will rising seas engulf N.J.'s history?" by NJ Spotlight News' Andrew S. Smith, Michael Sol Warren, and Ayurella Horn-Muller: "The Garden State's history is starting to wash away. New Jersey as it exists today was built up over hundreds of years from the arrival of Europeans, and thousands of years of Lenape settlement before that. Reminders of the past are scattered everywhere — the state has more than 100,000 historic properties, one in nearly every city and town." "'This is part of our cultural consciousness,' said Barton Ross, a past president of the advocacy group Preservation New Jersey. 'To experience the historic neighborhoods and what they bring.' "But as climate change pushes water up along New Jersey's coast, the risks of flooding and destruction during storms are rising for the state's waterfront heritage." "N.J. residents sue town over proposed hospital expansion. They claim conflict of interest." by NJ Advance Media's Keith Sargeant: "Five months after Teaneck officials approved a long-term renovation of Holy Name, a group of homeowners near the medical center asked a judge to block the expansion of the 361-bed acute care facility." "The lawsuit, filed Thursday in state Superior Court in Hackensack, seeks to overturn ordinances granted by the township council and planning board that change the zoning of the current Holy Name site and several surrounding hospital-owned properties." "NorthJersey.com first reported the details of the lawsuit Friday morning." Odds and ends — New Jersey just upped its number of recreational weed sales sites to 13. — A lauded Indian restaurant is hidden in plain sight. — These are the kinds of reusable bags being sold before the plastic bag ban takes effect. CORRECTION: Thursday' edition of New Jersey Playbook PM mistakenly said the press conference on Perth Amboy Train Station upgrades was in Trenton, not Perth Amboy.   Subscribe to the POLITICO Playbook family Playbook  |  Playbook PM  |  California Playbook  |  California Playbook PM  |  Florida Playbook  |  Illinois Playbook  |  Massachusetts Playbook  |  New Jersey Playbook  |  New York Playbook  |  New York Playbook PM View all our political and policy newsletters Follow us

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