Monday, February 29, 2016

Choice Districts, Charterized Districts Are Big Winners for 2016-17 State Aid

For the sixth year in a row, the disproportionate gainers in K-12 aid are districts that participate in Interdistrict Choice.

Interdistrict Choice, to simplify, is a relatively new program where state taxpayers pay school districts to accept students who live outside that school district.

The average state payment is nearly $11,000 per Choice student, an amount far in excess of the marginal costs to a district of accepting additional students.

After three years of blistering, unlimited cost growth (from $9 million in 2010 to $49 million in 2013-14), the Christie Administration tried to freeze Interdistrict Choice and only allowed limited growth.

For 2016-17 the Christie Administration is only increasing Interdistrict Choice spending by $1.2 million, but even that small amount is enough to provide disproportionate gains to Choice districts.

http://www.nj.gov/education/finance/fp/ufb/2015/reports/29/0230/UFB16_0230.pdf
http://www.nj.gov/education/finance/fp/ufb/2015/reports/25/4360/UFB16_4360.pdf
Note: The photos are not from Beach Haven and Red Bank Boro.  I used
them for illustrative purposes.


The following districts are all of the districts in New Jersey that are gaining more than $80 per student.  (NJ's median increase is $19 per student.)

Please notice how many are gaining most of their aid primarily through Interdistrict Choice.


(Some Choice districts who are among the biggest gainers in overall aid are seeing their Choice aid stay flat.  Atlantic City is in this category.  If a Choice district is gaining more from formula aid than Choice Aid it appears in blue as a regular district.)

Click to enlarge.

Or, to put it in table format.

Please also notice that these big gainers are only rarely among the most underaided in New Jersey and seven of them in fact got more money than SFRA says they economically and demographically need!  (and remember, SFRA's funding targets are extremely high for any district where a majority of students are at-risk.)


DistrictTotal Per Student Increase for 2016-172015-16 Underaiding or Overaiding Relative to Uncapped AidChoice Aid Percentage of Total IncreaseHost District Aid Percentage of Total IncreaseNoteAid Per Student in 2015-16
WEST CAPE MAY BORO$1,880-$60199%NAChoice$7,816
NEWARK$528-$2,600NA82%Abbott/Host District$14,119
HAMPTON BORO$499$3,95798%NAChoice$9,146
BLOOMSBURY BORO$335-$66782%NAChoice$7,694
BROOKLAWN BORO$307-$2,50969%NAChoice$12,077
PLAINFIELD CITY$272-$4,106NA66%Abbott/Host District$12,668
CALIFON BORO$262$1,70096%NAChoice$3,263
QUINTON TWP$167-$70271%NAChoice$9,190
WILDWOOD CREST BORO$162$72188%NAChoice$2,352
LOWER CAPE MAY REG.$161$4,60794%NAChoice$7,174
ATLANTIC CITY$151-$4,526NA (lost Choice Aid)81%Choice (but lost Choice money)$2,635
PORT REPUBLIC CITY$149-$27572%NAChoice$5,598
FOLSOM BORO$145-$2,26655%NAChoice$11,776
MINE HILL TWP$131-$2,40971%NAChoice$5,455
SOUTH HARRISON TWP$128-$70458%NAChoice$4,139
OXFORD TWP$127-$1,60173%NAChoice$6,666
IRVINGTON $126-$348NA89%Abbott/Host District$15,331
ALEXANDRIA TWP$124$1,41592%NAChoice$3,589
NEW BRUNSWICK $118-$4,056NA15%Abbott/Host District (is among NJ's most rapidly growing districts)$12,805
MANCHESTER REG$115-$10,73751%NAChoice (but most underaided district in NJ)$7,271
BRIDGETON CITY$114-$4,033NA8%$13,968
SOMERDALE BORO$113-$3,72149%NAChoice$6,163
ELSINBORO TWP$110-$2,53965%NAChoice$6,523
ORANGE$108-$3,045NA6%$13,973
ELIZABETH CITY$105-$2,586NANAAbbott$14,484
FAIRFIELD TWP$101-$1,785NA14%$10,720
WOODLYNNE BORO$101-$5,982NANA$12,281
PAULSBORO BORO$101-$2,8679%NAChoice$11,624
OLDMANS TWP$100-$1,51057%NAChoice$6,100
WEST NEW YORK$99-$3,1970%NAAbbott$12,207
DEAL BORO$98NA66%NAChoice$10,796
PINE HILL BORO$98-$2,81819%NAChoice$9,959
ROOSEVELT BORO$97$57290%NAChoice$8,524
UNION CITY$97-$3,3320%NAAbbott$14,490
CLAYTON BORO$95-$5,02734%1%Choice$7,165
WHARTON BORO$95-$5,38547%NAChoice$5,025
ELMER BORO$92-$583NANA$9,070
FRENCHTOWN BORO$88$1,72589%NAChoice$5,930
EGG HARBOR CITY$86-$2,453NANA$10,791
NORTH HANOVER TWP$85-$3,108NANA$10,722
PENNS GRV-CARNEY'S PT REG$84-$4,059NANA$10,394
BERLIN TWP$82-$1,06050%2%Choice$6,836
LINDENWOLD$81-$5,885-14%6%$9,084
PROSPECT PARK$81-$5,896NANA$8,915
LAWRENCE TWP$80-$2,618NA5%Choice$10,078
MEDIAN NJ DISTRICT$19

Notice who isn't on the list: FREEHOLD BORO, New Jersey's most stricken and overcrowded district.  Freehold Boro is only gaining $100,770, or $58 per student.

NJ's other most underaided districts are doing similarly badly. Fairview is getting $59 per student. Guttenberg is getting $49 per student. Manville is getting $37 per student. Lodi is getting $41 per student. Bound Brook, with a -$9,176 deficit the most underaided for 2016-17, is getting another $59 per student. East Newark is doing comparatively well, getting another $74 per student.

Granted, some of the Interdistrict Choice districts are severely underaided too, including Manchester Regional, New Jersey's most underaided district for 2015-16.

It's good Manchester Regional is getting additional state aid through Interdistrict Choice, but Manchester Regional is the exception that proves the rule.  Manchester Regional is only able to accept Choice students because so many North Haledon children do not attend Manchester Regional.  Most other underaided districts, like Freehold Boro, have bad crowding problems and could not participate in Interdistrict Choice even if they wanted to.

However, for almost all of these underaided Choice districts, including Manchester Regional, the gain from new Interdistrict Choice money exceeds their gains from other aids.  If it weren't for Interdistrict Choice money, Manchester Regional would only gain $56 per student.

West Cape May: The Biggest Aid Thief of 2016-17

Newark might be getting the most new money in absolute terms for 2016-17, but West Cape May is getting the biggest increase in dollars per student: an unbelievable gain of $1880 per student.  (over $100,000 for a district the DOE considers to have 65 students (See how Professional Community Development Aid is $650.  $650 = 65 students)

What is West Cape May that makes it so worthy?

It is a microdistrict with 97 students on roll and $2,555,658 in Local Fair Share, or $26,346 per student.

When West Cape May has so much wealth and conditions in the rest of New Jersey are so desperate, the State should be trying to ease aid out of West Cape May, not funnel more into it.

Deal Steals Again

Deal has a phenomenally high tax base: $17.2 million in Local Fair Share for 176 students (counting Choice students), or $97,800 per student.

Like Hoboken, Allenhurst, Alpine and a few other ultra-high resource districts, Deal has no need for any state aid.  Given its minute size, Deal should not even be an independent district.

And yet because of Interdistrict Choice Deal will gain another $17,000 in Choice Aid next year, bringing Deal's total aid up to $2.1 million.  The $17,000 might not sound like a lot, but when the state can only find $100,000 for Freehold Boro and when Deal is so rich and already aided at $10,700 per student , Deal's $17,000 is unacceptable.  

Host District Support Aid (ie, Bucks for Charters)

The other class of districts getting big gains in aid per pupil are districts getting money from Chris Christie's new "Host District Support Aid."

Host District Support Aid is concentrated in Newark. Of the $26 million the state is distributing through this new aid stream, Newark is getting $22 million.

Plainfield, Irvington, New Brunswick, and Atlantic City are the only other districts in NJ to get over $100,000 through Host District Support Aid. Several districts with high charter transfers, such as Paterson ($34.6 mil in charter transfers), Trenton ($35 mil), Camden ($57 mil), Jersey City ($58 mil) are getting nothing.

Host District Support Aid is pass-through money for charters. The children in the traditional Newark Public Schools will not directly benefit from this money.  The creation of Host District Support aid is more a sign of Newark/charter political power than Chris Christie fairly and consistently responding to a school funding problem.

The increase in aid for the Newark Public Schools is $4.7 million, or $92 per student.

Another Unfair Year

The real culprit of underaiding is New Jersey's stagnant economy and need to increase pension and debt payments, however, the problem isn't only the pitiful amount of new aid, it's how the new aid is distributed.

The Christie Administration only increased Equalization Aid by $19 million. from $6,070,003,740 to $6,088,956,541)

That $19 million was all there was available to help NJ's most acutely underaided districts.

For 2016-17, the 199 overaided districts got $567,773,913 more than SFRA said they demographically and economically needed.  If Chris Christie had been willing to redistribute only 10% of this money (~$57 million) and had not created the $10 per student Professional Development Aid (~$11 million) it would have made possible an increase of $68 million for Equalization Aid - more than three times more than was actually made available.

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See Also:


Helping the Needless: New Jersey's Richest Districts and Their State Aid

The Robbers and the Robbed: State Aid Disparities for 2016-17

Choice Districts, Charterized Districts Are Big Winners for 2016-17 State Aid

More on 2016-17 State Aid: Where the Money's Going

Wednesday, February 24, 2016

The Abbott Pre-K Monopoly Continues


Something else that must be said about next year's Pre-K distribution is that the Abbott Pre-K monopoly is continuing.

All non-Abbotts combined are projected to get $57.56 million next year, compared to $598 million for the Abbotts.  Jersey City alone will get $68.4 million, more than all non-Abbotts combined.


Tuesday, February 23, 2016

Big Winners, Losers in Pre-K Aid


Chris Christie is proposing that for 2016-17 that Pre-K aid be kept at exactly the same amount it was at for 2015-16, that is, $655,516,608, but this doesn't mean that every single Pre-K district is getting the same amount of aid that it got last year.

Due to increases in the number of children aged 3 or 4 in Pre-K districts, some of the aid shifts are very large.

The Gainers (all districts gaining more than $100,000):
Proposed Pre-K Aid Increase2015-16 Pre-K Aid2016-17 Proposed Pre-K Aid
HOBOKEN $1,288,185$10,229,295$11,517,480
JERSEY CITY$923,574$67,499,148$68,422,722
FRANKLIN TWP$863,872$857,123$1,720,995
TRENTON$639,076$28,466,696$29,105,772
BAYONNE $401,513$2,017,358$2,418,871
KEANSBURG $292,744$2,800,160$3,092,904
BOUND BROOK $290,275$429,607$719,882
EAST ORANGE$266,677$19,183,823$19,450,500
GLOUCESTER CITY$249,800$3,397,280$3,647,080
UPPER DEERFIELD TWP$230,020$222,600$452,620
BURLINGTON CITY$176,316$2,518,800$2,695,116
BELLMAWR BORO$171,696$815,556$987,252
UNION CITY$145,656$27,492,327$27,637,983
WOODBURY CITY$142,103$743,308$885,411
HAMILTON TWP$141,322$171,074$312,396
DEPTFORD TWP$112,992$706,200$819,192

The Losers (all districts losing more than $100,000):


Proposed 2016-17 Pre-K Decrease2015-16 Pre-K Aid 2016-17 Proposed Pre-K Aid
IRVINGTON-$101,114$17,472,500$17,371,386
CARTERET-$105,130$735,910$630,780
MULLICA-$119,448$520,452$401,004
SOMERVILLE-$133,696$651,768$518,072
CAMDEN CITY-$186,900$29,852,930$29,666,030
PEMBERTON-$188,910$8,054,931$7,866,021
HARRISON -$204,828$5,118,675$4,913,847
NEW BRUNSWICK -$210,334$20,559,906$20,349,572
PERTH AMBOY -$417,420$20,801,430$20,384,010
VINELAND -$607,410$18,762,220$18,154,810
LONG BRANCH CITY-$623,672$10,475,144$9,851,472
GARFIELD-$771,180$8,988,195$8,217,015
NEPTUNE TWP-$776,408$6,122,168$5,345,760
MILLVILLE -$808,059$9,122,245$8,314,186
NEWARK -$1,090,537$87,794,798$86,704,261
ELIZABETH-$1,194,420$45,921,936$44,727,516

As I've said before, due to the state's refusal to update the Abbott list, New Jersey has a growing issue with the fair and rational provision of Pre-K services to needy students.

The NJ Supreme Court has forced the state to pay for "free" Pre-K for all 3s and 4s living in the Abbotts (and only the Abbotts) since the Abbott V decision of 1998.  

As the Gold Coast Abbotts have gentrified, the number of children they have enrolled in "free" Pre-K has increased and the percentage of them who are actually poor has decreased.  Less than half of Jersey City's Pre-K children are actually poor and only a small minority of Hoboken's are.  Hoboken's Pre-K children are almost never non-Anglophones either.  

SFRA was supposed to provide state-funded Pre-K to all 3s and 4s in New Jersey who live in districts where more than 40% of students are FRL-eligible and provide state-funded Pre-K to at least poor children in districts below this FRL-eligibility threshold.  

SFRA, as I've said repeatedly, is hopelessly unfundable, and the Abbott/Non-Abbott inequities are starker than ever.  

Means-testing for Pre-K eligibility would save New Jersey tens of millions of dollars a year.  If Pre-K advocates like Steven Sweeney and Teresa Ruiz were serious about finding more money for Pre-K for poor children outside of the Abbotts then means testing in the Abbotts is necessary.