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.)

District	Total Per Student Increase for 2016-17	2015-16 Underaiding or Overaiding Relative to Uncapped Aid	Choice Aid Percentage of Total Increase	Host District Aid Percentage of Total Increase	Note	Aid Per Student in 2015-16
WEST CAPE MAY BORO	$1,880	-$601	99%	NA	Choice	$7,816
NEWARK	$528	-$2,600	NA	82%	Abbott/Host District	$14,119
HAMPTON BORO	$499	$3,957	98%	NA	Choice	$9,146
BLOOMSBURY BORO	$335	-$667	82%	NA	Choice	$7,694
BROOKLAWN BORO	$307	-$2,509	69%	NA	Choice	$12,077
PLAINFIELD CITY	$272	-$4,106	NA	66%	Abbott/Host District	$12,668
CALIFON BORO	$262	$1,700	96%	NA	Choice	$3,263
QUINTON TWP	$167	-$702	71%	NA	Choice	$9,190
WILDWOOD CREST BORO	$162	$721	88%	NA	Choice	$2,352
LOWER CAPE MAY REG.	$161	$4,607	94%	NA	Choice	$7,174
ATLANTIC CITY	$151	-$4,526	NA (lost Choice Aid)	81%	Choice (but lost Choice money)	$2,635
PORT REPUBLIC CITY	$149	-$275	72%	NA	Choice	$5,598
FOLSOM BORO	$145	-$2,266	55%	NA	Choice	$11,776
MINE HILL TWP	$131	-$2,409	71%	NA	Choice	$5,455
SOUTH HARRISON TWP	$128	-$704	58%	NA	Choice	$4,139
OXFORD TWP	$127	-$1,601	73%	NA	Choice	$6,666
IRVINGTON	$126	-$348	NA	89%	Abbott/Host District	$15,331
ALEXANDRIA TWP	$124	$1,415	92%	NA	Choice	$3,589
NEW BRUNSWICK	$118	-$4,056	NA	15%	Abbott/Host District (is among NJ's most rapidly growing districts)	$12,805
MANCHESTER REG	$115	-$10,737	51%	NA	Choice (but most underaided district in NJ)	$7,271
BRIDGETON CITY	$114	-$4,033	NA	8%		$13,968
SOMERDALE BORO	$113	-$3,721	49%	NA	Choice	$6,163
ELSINBORO TWP	$110	-$2,539	65%	NA	Choice	$6,523
ORANGE	$108	-$3,045	NA	6%		$13,973
ELIZABETH CITY	$105	-$2,586	NA	NA	Abbott	$14,484
FAIRFIELD TWP	$101	-$1,785	NA	14%		$10,720
WOODLYNNE BORO	$101	-$5,982	NA	NA		$12,281
PAULSBORO BORO	$101	-$2,867	9%	NA	Choice	$11,624
OLDMANS TWP	$100	-$1,510	57%	NA	Choice	$6,100
WEST NEW YORK	$99	-$3,197	0%	NA	Abbott	$12,207
DEAL BORO	$98	NA	66%	NA	Choice	$10,796
PINE HILL BORO	$98	-$2,818	19%	NA	Choice	$9,959
ROOSEVELT BORO	$97	$572	90%	NA	Choice	$8,524
UNION CITY	$97	-$3,332	0%	NA	Abbott	$14,490
CLAYTON BORO	$95	-$5,027	34%	1%	Choice	$7,165
WHARTON BORO	$95	-$5,385	47%	NA	Choice	$5,025
ELMER BORO	$92	-$583	NA	NA		$9,070
FRENCHTOWN BORO	$88	$1,725	89%	NA	Choice	$5,930
EGG HARBOR CITY	$86	-$2,453	NA	NA		$10,791
NORTH HANOVER TWP	$85	-$3,108	NA	NA		$10,722
PENNS GRV-CARNEY'S PT REG	$84	-$4,059	NA	NA		$10,394
BERLIN TWP	$82	-$1,060	50%	2%	Choice	$6,836
LINDENWOLD	$81	-$5,885	-14%	6%		$9,084
PROSPECT PARK	$81	-$5,896	NA	NA		$8,915
LAWRENCE TWP	$80	-$2,618	NA	5%	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

How Englewood and Englewood Cliffs Gamed Interdistrict Choice

The state is about to stop Interdistrict Choice payments made for students whose districts of residence have no schools for that age group.

Englewood Cliffs is a K-8 district without a high school.

Englewood Cliffs is not part of a regional high school district, so in the past Englewood Cliffs has had a "send receive" relationship with Englewood, where Englewood Cliffs would pay tuition for its students to attend school at Englewood's Dwight Morrow High School.

Then Interdistrict Choice came around and the state of New Jersey said it would pay for students to attend school outside their resident districts. It is a terribly designed program in the first place, but intended to let students attend schools outside their districts while their property taxes stayed in their residential districts

Englewood Cliffs, again, has no high school at all, but Interdistrict Choice gives students the ability to attend school outside their districts.

Since Englewood Cliffs students attended school out of district anyway (in this case in Englewood) Englewood Cliffs just signed its students up for Interdistrict Choice and let the state pay tuition for its kids.  Englewood was thus off-the-hook for having any monetary responsibility for its high school aged kids.

Englewood's Local Fair Share is very high, so the average payment was $17,700, picked up by state taxpayers.  Since there are 23 Englewood Cliffs students enrolled in the Academies@Englewood, the total cost to state taxpayers is $407,100 per year.  Because of this Interdistrict Choice Aid Englewood is one of the few overaided districts in Bergen County.

But most of the Englewood Cliffs students who attend Dwight Morrow High are enrolled in the school’s magnet Academies@Englewood program. The Academies are part of the state’s School Choice program, which allows approved schools to accept out-of-district students without charging them tuition.

The state decided last year that, because of the send/receive relationship, Englewood Cliffs students are not eligible for School Choice aid. The Englewood and Englewood Cliffs districts both appealed. 

The education department recently agreed to pay Englewood approximately $1.2 million in back aid for these students. The amount represents three years’ worth of funding, going back to the 2013-2014 school year, according to a copy of a letter sent to school officials in October. 

The Englewood school board unanimously accepted the payment Thursday night. The money will be used to pay teachers’ salaries and for a vice-principal for the Academies, according to the resolution that was approved. 

The letter also stated that starting on July 1, the department would no longer pay School Choice aid for any Englewood Cliffs students who attend classes in Englewood.

Anyway, eventually the Department of Education decided it was inconsistent with the intentions of Interdistrict Choice for state taxpayers to pay tuition for students from districts that don't have schools for kids of that age group anyway.  The tuition payments will now stop.

I do not believe that Englewood is the only situation where something like this applies.  New Jersey has about ten non-operating districts that are supposed to pay tuition for their students to attend schools in other districts.  Many of these non-operating districts are in rural areas and the Jersey Shore where there are many Interdistrict Choice participants.  Allenhurst students, for instance, are supposed to attend school in Asbury Park (perhaps NJ's lowest performing district), but it's easy to imagine these students attending school in Deal through Interdistrict Choice instead.

Englewood and Englewood Cliffs have appealed this decision in the past, but I hope that the decision sticks.

The Skews of Interdistrict Choice

Interdistrict Choice is the most underexamined and overpraised program in New Jersey education.

Interdistrict Choice is a program where state taxpayers pay tuition for students to attend public schools outside of the district they reside in.  The average tuition payment is $11,000 per Choice student, but the Interdistrict Choice formula is designed so that there is a great deal of variation in payment per Choice student.

The amount of money a Choice district gets is usually equal to its Local Fair Share Per student.  A low-resource Choice district like Phillipsburg might get only $3200 per student; a high-resource Choice district like Hoboken would get $16,000 per student.  If a Choice district's Local Fair Share per student is higher than its Adequacy Budget, as Hoboken's is, the amount is capped at Adequacy Budget per student, hence Hoboken getting $16,000 per student instead of the $70,000 per student which is its Local Fair Share.

Since low-wealth Choice districts have Lower Local Fair shares, they are supposed to get regular formula aid for Choice students, ie Equalization Aid, Sped Aid etc.  However, in the era of frozen state aid they are not receiving their formula aid equivalents.

A Choice district can use its Choice money for anything it wants.  Some districts, like Englewood, have created innovative and unique programming.  Other districts have used the money to offset tax increases, like Brooklawn, which has not raised taxes since 2001.

I've addressed some of the significant defects of Interdistrict Choice before, such as its academic skimming and how the Choice payment per student is much greater than the marginal costs of taking new students in.

Rather than go over that ground again, this blog post will examine the regional, population size, and district wealth skews of Interdistrict Choice.

Regional Skews:

Interdistrict Choice districts tend to be that have seen falling residential student enrollment in the last few years. Choice districts are thus often rural and at the Jersey Shore.

As Interdistrict Choice begins to disrupt student enrollment in sending districts, these districts develop their own spare capacity, and are thus incentivized to participate in Interdistrict Choice as well.

The swapping of students can generate significant sums of new state aid for districts that have no net increase in student enrollment.  For instance, Cape May districts have gained $7 million in state aid since 2011 but their total student population has fallen by 350.

Most of NJ's suburban counties, Bergen, Essex, Middlesex, Somerset, and Union have no or few participating districts.  The districts in these counties would like to participate and trigger additional state aid, but their own residential enrollments tend to be too high to allow it.

As Superintendent Frank Alvarez of Montclair said:

Schools Superintendent Frank Alvarez said the recently enacted Interdistrict Public School Choice Program might make sense for other districts with lots of unused classroom capacity, but it may not be beneficial option for Montclair.  

"I don't think we would opt to participate in the program," Alvarez told The Times Monday night following the Board of Education's public meeting. 

"The issue for us is limited school space, even with the new Bullock School," Alvarez explained. ""We don't have excess capacity, and the capacity we do have can be utilized better by bringing our district's special needs students back to Montclair."

Camden is a suburban county and appears to be an exception to this rule, but Camden has a large number of districts (38) relative to its population and a rural section as well.   These small districts are the Camden districts that usually participate.

This rural/Shore bias is only a skew, I acknowledge that there are many exceptions.

District Size Skews:

There are 128 Choice districts that get $52 million in Choice money, but these districts only educate 155,000 students.

The average Choice district only has 1,200 students (that counts non-residential Choice students)

There are 416 districts that do not/cannot participate in Interdistrict Choice. (not counting vo-techs and non-operating districts) The non-participating districts educate 1.2 million students.

The average non-participating district has 2,800 students.

The smallest districts in NJ are disproportionately Choice districts.  Even though only 24% of NJ's regular operating districts participates in Interdistrict Choice HALF of the fifty smallest districts participate.

District Name	Student Pop.	Choice Aid	Choice Aid Per Student
KNOWLTON TWP	234	$0	$0
WOODBINE BORO	232	$32,028	$138
WENONAH BORO	231	$0	$0
SEASIDE HEIGHTS BORO	226	$139,930	$619
DOWNE TWP	214	$198,816	$929
SPRINGFIELD TWP	209	$0	$0
WOODBURY HEIGHTS BORO	208	$0	$0
LAUREL SPRINGS BORO	207	$165,792	$801
HOPE TWP	204	$0	$0
WEYMOUTH TWP	200	$0	$0
LOWER ALLOWAYS CREEK	200	$0	$0
SADDLE RIVER BORO	193	$0	$0
NEW HANOVER TWP	191	$0	$0
ESTELL MANOR CITY	180	$247,240	$1,374
SEA GIRT BORO	178	$0	$0
MANNINGTON TWP	175	$0	$0
HIGHLANDS BORO	171	$0	$0
FRELINGHUYSEN TWP	170	$0	$0
ALPINE BORO	168	$0	$0
CAPE MAY CITY	163	$152,251	$934
DEAL BORO	161	$1,772,793	$11,011
AVON BORO	159	$0	$0
FARMINGDALE BORO	152	$0	$0
LAVALLETTE BORO	151	$0	$0
WINFIELD TWP	150	$135,330	$902
WOODLAND TWP	148	$0	$0
BLOOMSBURY BORO	147	$267,235	$1,818
EAGLESWOOD TWP	145	$0	$0
OCEAN GATE BORO	144	$0	$0
SANDYSTON-WALPACK TWP	144	$0	$0
FRENCHTOWN BORO	140	$125,749	$898
ELSINBORO TWP	139	$458,430	$3,298
ISLAND HEIGHTS BORO	135	$178,010	$1,319
BASS RIVER TWP	135	$0	$0
BAY HEAD BORO	135	$0	$0
PORT REPUBLIC CITY	128	$159,168	$1,244
HAMPTON BORO	120	$107,712	$898
CHESILHURST (Non-operating)	118	$0	$0
STOW CREEK TWP	114	$0	$0
CALIFON BORO	112	$22,938	$205
LEBANON BORO	102	$38,478	$377
ROOSEVELT BORO	99	$279,860	$2,827
MILFORD BORO	97	$66,906	$690
SEA ISLE CITY	88	$0	$0
WEST CAPE MAY BORO	85	$428,064	$5,036
STONE HARBOR BORO	82	$0	$0
BEACH HAVEN BORO	80	$164,983	$2,062
GREENWICH TWP	64	$0	$0
AVALON BORO	63	$0	$0
WASHINGTON TWP	42	$71,868	$1,711

In an era when NJ is supposed to favor district consolidation Interdistrict Choice is an obstacle to consolidation since districts get money whenever a student crosses a district line.  If small districts were to merge with their neighbors they could no longer qualify for Choice money from students who live outside of their town.

If NJ is serious about promoting district consolidation, something regarding Interdistrict Choice must be changed.

District Wealth Skews:

The 128 Choice districts receive a grand total of $52 million, but half of that money goes to only fifteen districts!!!

District Name	Choice Aid	Local Fair Share	Local Fair Share Per Student (Counting Choice students in the denominator)
ENGLEWOOD CITY	$4,241,664	$79,081,124	$26,039
OCEAN CITY	$2,682,050	$96,496,993	$46,061
HOBOKEN CITY	$2,645,874	$187,075,236	$70,889
KENILWORTH BORO	$2,125,960	$16,766,086	$11,882
HAMMONTON TOWN	$1,846,348	$20,385,878	$5,578
DEAL BORO	$1,772,793	$17,212,918	$106,913
MORRIS HILLS REGIONAL	$1,765,632	$41,800,451	$16,227
S HUNTERDON REGIONAL	$1,310,050	$19,042,272	$19,815
MANCHESTER REG	$1,304,100	$5,835,285	$6,091
CENTRAL REGIONAL	$1,284,467	$34,922,117	$18,856
PITTSGROVE TWP	$1,267,285	$11,469,786	$6,799
UPPER FREEHOLD REGIONAL	$1,151,850	$22,047,107	$9,470
MINE HILL TWP	$1,056,060	$6,151,467	$14,895
AUDUBON BORO	$939,960	$11,624,762	$7,433
CUMBERLAND REGIONAL	$862,568	$8,937,140	$6,993
TOTAL	$26,256,661

Ten of the "Big Fifteen" Choice districts are above average or significantly above average in district wealth per student.  Of these ten, three are ultra-high resource: Hoboken, Ocean City, and Deal.    These three districts, all of whom are richer on a per pupil basis than Millburn and Princeton, pull in a combined $7.1 million, over 13% of the total.  Other Choice districts in the Big Fifteen, such as Englewood, Morris Hills, South Hunterdon, and Central Regional are also significantly above average.

The situation in Deal is ridiculous. Deal, which has $2 billion in valuation for fewer than 200 students, gets almost $12,000 in state aid per student for 2015-16, of which over $10,000 per student is from Interdistrict Choice. Interdistrict Choice thus makes Deal better aided than Freehold Boro, Red Bank Boro, and most of the Monmouth County Abbotts. Due to Choice Aid, Deal's school tax rate is only 0.0920, meaning someone with a $1 million property only pays $920 a year in school taxes.

Deal's total state aid is $2.1 million, this is over two-thirds of Red Bank Boro's state aid even though Red Bank Boro is 7.5 times larger.

The Choice districts that get the most Choice money per student also tend to be higher resource than average, although there is a great deal of variation.  Overall, Choice districts are only slightly higher resource than the average New Jersey district.

District Name	Choice Aid Per Student	Local Fair Share Per Student
DEAL BORO	$11,011	$106,913
WEST CAPE MAY BORO	$5,036	$30,067
ELSINBORO TWP	$3,298	$11,931
ROOSEVELT BORO	$2,827	$13,891
MINE HILL TWP	$2,557	$14,895
BEACH HAVEN BORO	$2,062	$101,311
LONG BEACH ISLAND	$2,029	$178,478
OLDMANS TWP	$1,918	$12,022
FOLSOM BORO	$1,910	$5,578
BLOOMSBURY BORO	$1,818	$9,960
WASHINGTON TWP (Burlington)	$1,711	$44,191
KENILWORTH BORO	$1,507	$11,882
MERCHANTVILLE BORO	$1,485	$12,976
ENGLEWOOD CITY	$1,397	$26,039
ESTELL MANOR CITY	$1,374	$13,533
LAFAYETTE TWP	$1,372	$13,527
S HUNTERDON REGIONAL	$1,363	$19,815
MANCHESTER REG	$1,361	$6,091
ISLAND HEIGHTS BORO	$1,319	$20,738
OCEAN CITY	$1,280	$46,061
BROOKLAWN BORO	$1,258	$5,908
PORT REPUBLIC CITY	$1,244	$15,201
GREEN TWP	$1,147	$17,279
TUCKERTON BORO	$1,087	$8,212
HOBOKEN CITY	$1,003	$70,889

Conclusion:

There are numerous problems with Interdistrict Choice not examined in this blog post.  The biggest problem is that Interdistrict Choice is a blank check to underenrolled districts.  The amount of money Choice districts get per student is out of proportion to the marginal costs of their taking new students in, meaning that Interdistrict Choice is just a gold mine for participating districts.  Choice districts are paid on the raw number of Choice students they accept and not the net change in their student bodies due to Interdistrict Choice, meaning that a Choice district's aid can increase while its population even decreases, as West Cape May demonstrates.

There is also the problem that the Christie Administration and legislature are giving Choice districts the same amount of state aid even as their Choice student populations decline, with the lost Choice Aid being rechannelled through "Additional Adjustment Aid."  This is money for non-existent students and is one of the most unfair aspects of NJ's aid distribution.

Anecdotally Interdistrict Choice students are good students and better off economically than most of the other students in their residential districts.  Unfortunately no comprehensive study of the demographics and academic profiles of Choice students has been done.

Interdistrict Choice has the potential to allow students to find a learning environment that better suits their needs, but the program's costs need to be scaled back and capped in the era of the Pension Crisis.  Using Local Fair Share to calculate Choice Aid is a significant mistake because it makes Interdistrict Choice internally unfair to low-wealth Choice districts and results in fruther overaiding of high-wealth districts.

There are reforms to Interdistrict Choice I would like to see, but Interdistrict Choice also may be a program whose inherent flaws are too fatal.  In the era of the Pension Crisis, when NJ cannot increase funding for districts with growing residential enrollment, how can we divert desperately needed money to Choice districts that may not be undergoing a net increase in student population at all?