David Rutherford is in his first year as a member the the school board in Plainfield, New Jersey. He dug into the budget and discovered that the state of Néw Jersey is cheating the children of Plainfield. Since the election of Chris Christie, the state has ignored a law requiring that it fund schools based on student needs. Plainfield has been shorted by millions of dollars. Rutherford estimates that Plainfield is owed $70 million by the state.
Guess who has not been shorted? Charter schools, which have the backing of several prominent hedge fund billionaires in Néw Jersey.
Charter schools have been sucking students and dollars out of the Plainfield public schools.
Until now, the fiscally responsible Plainfield district had been running a surplus. But it won’t last.
Rutherford writes:
“But surplus is a finite resource, and long term the picture is far more grim. The state of New Jersey’s refusal to pay districts the funds they deserve and the over-funding of charter schools will become growing problems for which this district, and many others, must find difficult long term solutions. Millions of dollars in lost money will undoubtably have a grave impact on students and the community.
“Applying the Pressure
“We must demand that Chris Christie and the New Jersey State Legislature cease to steal from the neediest public school districts while keeping charter schools afloat. Language that allows for charter over-payment must be removed from next year’s budget.
“The Highland Park and Paterson Boards of Education have already passed resolutions demanding that the Legislature take a stand and eliminate that language. In fact, you can read Highland Park’s resolution, which has been accepted in principle by the New Jersey School Boards Association and should be up for vote at the next School Board Delegate Assembly meeting on November 26th.
“Seven million dollars in over-payments on top of $70 million in underfunding over the course of the past six years is nothing short of theft, and the blame falls on a bipartisan coalition of our leaders in Trenton. This includes the two-thirds Democratic State Assembly and Senate. They must be held accountable.”
If policies like Néw Jersey’s stay in place, districts like Plainfield will go bankrupt, setting them up for privatization. There will be many others in the same situation. Good news for hedge fund managers who want to destroy public education. Bad news for kids, teachers, public education, and democracy.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Here is the link to David’s post:
https://plainfieldview.wordpress.com/2015/09/24/state-politicians-deny-millions-to-plainfield-schools/
Thank you, Diane for highlighting David’s tremendous work for Plainfield Public Schools.
The one reply to his article certainly isn’t encouraging. since I am not in NJ, I don’t see the local news or have a feel for the local climate. However, that one response doesn’t sound like that person really has any understanding of the issue.
CNN’s Jake Tapper (to Christie):“At the national level, who deserves a punch in the face?”
Christie’s reply was: “Oh the national teachers union, who has already endorsed Hillary Clinton 16, 17 months before the election.”
Not only is he a bully, but Chris Christie is the arch d0uche of New Jersey.
They’re going to have to figure out how to sell ed reform to public school parents without the reliance on union-bashing:
“Unions might never recover the strength they had decades ago, but recent signs suggest renewed support for labor, or at least an end to its run as a Republican bogeyman.
Public approval of unions is up 10 percentage points since 2008, to 58 percent, according to the Gallup survey released Aug. 17. Women and people ages 18 to 34 provided the strongest support.
Walker, who restricted most collective-bargaining rights for state public employees in 2011, attempted to revive his sliding presidential poll numbers by vowing Sept. 14 to do the same at the national level. His support continued to plummet, and a week later he was out of the race.
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who gained fame by battling teacher unions in his state, remains mired in back of the Republican presidential pack, with polls showing him in the low single digits.”
It should be easy to sell, right? They’re all about “improving” public schools and they’ve been in power 15 years. They shouldn’t have any trouble showing public school parents how this “movement” has benefited our kids. We know all about the testing and the scolding and the threats and the budget cuts. When do we get to the “improving public schools” part? Where’s the benefit to kids in public schools?
http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-09-28/political-appeal-of-bashing-american-unions-may-have-peaked
Christie’s ascent in New Jersey is a cautionary tale for voters everywhere. Those of us that support public schools must show up and only vote for candidates that understand the value of public education. Forget the Tea Party candidates and neoliberals. They oppose anything for the common good.
As a hotbed of the self-proclaimed “education reform” movement, NJ reminds us all that when rheephormistas say “we do more with less even while competing on a level playing field with public schools and are the rising tide that lifts all public school boats” they mean—
We can rig the system so that you give us MORE while you get LESS of what you’re entitled to and when you let us have our way, we will swamp and overwhelm and starve you out of existence.
That’s what the “thought leaders” of the “new civil rights movement of our time” repeat ad nauseam.
😡
A glance at NJ’s 20-yr-old charter law makes it clear why we have had neither a rush to charters nor a plethora of scandals. The main issue appears to be allowing failing charters to stick around too long (e.g., Plainfield’s previous charter school, Central Arts, just closed). But incursions are being made. How for example did NJ DOE decide to approve Plainfield’s new charter, Piscal’s College Achieve? (See Rutherford’s March post “A Plainfield Charter School Vulture). And now the legislative highjinks outlined in the current post.
And, as evidenced by “One Newark” and moves to privatize Camden & Paterson, all bets are off if the State owns your schools. Christie already siphons big chunks of hi-income districts’ RE taxes & funnels them to lo-income districts. That’s a good thing in principle. But not if he’s then allowed to set Chris Cerf’s dogs on the red meat of state-takeover-schools, ignoring all the opening paras on how charters are to be established.